Harry Potter and the Moment in Time
by Voivode
Summary: It still amazes him how much life can change in a single moment. Follow Harry as he rejects those who would use him and deals with those who would kill him.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My story is one that it would be rather difficult to place where it truly starts.

Was it decades before my birth when a certain psychopath was born to terrorize the world?

When I was born?

When said psychopath first tried to kill me?

When I started school?

No, Personally I think it started when I uttered one particular phrase.

"Damn it" I muttered as I once again tried to sit comfortably despite the heavy bruises my loving cousin had imparted on me "I wish Dobby was here"

"You called Harry Potter sir?"

I let out a yelp and fell from the bed I had been laying on. Regretting that immediately, as it only agitated my already pained ribs, I struggled to get up and look at my welcomed but still unexpected visitor.

"Dobby" I said wincing as I moved "What are you doing here?"

"You was calling Dobby Harry Potter sir" the elf replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "Harry Potter freed Dobby so Dobby keeps an ear out for his call"

As I stepped toward the often eccentric elf thinking that this was good to know, the pain in my ribs and abdomen grew too great and I fell to me knees crying out.

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH BOY!" Vernon shouted from down stairs

"Harry Potter is hurt" Dobby exclaimed in horror

"No, no it's nothing" I replied standing by my old defense mechanism to underplay and ignore every shitty thing that had happened to me

"It's not nothing" Dobby said more fiercely than I had ever heard him say anything and the next thing I knew he grabbed my arm and I found myself in what appeared to be a hospital examination room.

I was joined a moment later by an equally confused looking healer. He was a middle aged man with slightly balding sandy hair and the expression of someone used to be surrounded by idiots. He wore standard healers robes that I had seen on Madame Pomfrey the multiple times that I had needed to see her and gazed at me with barely hidden contempt.

"Why in the name of Merlin did a house elf just appear in the lone solace that is my office and transport me in here?" he asked with clear irritation

"He's a touch enthusiastic?" I said trying and failing to lighten the man's mood "Listen, I'm sorry, I'm perfectly fine, but the elf thought I was hurt"

As I tried to walk out of the room however, pain shot through my body and I fell over, crying out again as my sore ribs hit the ground.

The healer just sighed and levitated me onto the bed "Fine is the last thing how are and, Merlin you're Harry Potter" noticing my immediate concern he added "Healer's oath prevents my from talking about patients to anyone kid, I'm Healer Cox by the way"

It took him a few minutes and several diagnostic charms to ascertain just what was wrong with me. The immediate problem was two cracked ribs and the heavy bruising surrounding them. The more he murmured the incantations of those spells, the more his brow furrowed in obvious concern.

"Listen kid" he started with the barest hint of hesitation "I'm going to need an honest answer to this, are you given enough food to eat?"

"Theres always a lot of food at Hogwarts" I replied trying to deflect what he really meant

"Do you eat much of it?" he pressed

"I guess" I answered meekly

"Well I'm going to repair the damage that whatever didn't happen to you did and then I'm going to prescribe a round of nutrient potions, to be taken three times a day after a large meal"

"Do I really need them?" I asked fearing that the Dursleys would never give me anything resembling a large meal

"Yes you do" he said with authority "Your physical development is directly tied into your magical development, if you don't grow properly, you will never gain your true magical potential"

"Oh" I replied dumbly "Umm what if I can't usually get large meals?"

Healer Cox just stared at me for a moment before taking out a sheet of parchment and started writing things down.

"Are you saying that you don't know about your rights as heir to a noble house?" He asked slightly dumbfounded

"A what?" I replied confused

"Ok, here" Healer Cox started "I normally wouldn't do this but you are perhaps the most famous wizard in the country and I suspect I know who is responsible for this so listen up. I will write down a list of things you are to do today before you go back to where ever it is you live. First is to go ask the goblins about estate of the Noble House of Potter."

"The what?" I asked still confused

"Don't interrupt me" Cox said in an irritated monotone "You are rather famously the last living Potter, and as such you would have significant resources available to you and even if you won't be able to access all of them immediately, there should be more than enough to let you live comfortably as you follow this potion and nutrition regimen. Depending on their particular will, you may also be able to leave whatever situation you are currently in."

"Are you serious?" I asked proving that it isn't possible to ask too many stupid questions in a row

"Do I look like a man who kids about much of anything?" Cox asked rhetorically "I am also writing down a list of books to, among other things, help you learn how to brew these nutrient potions yourself once you're done with your week's supply. If I know Severus Snape and I've had the poor fortune of meeting the man, you'll need them."

"Th-thank you" I stammered "How can I repay you and how will the Hospital be charging me?"

Cox grinned "Don't worry kid. For one I will be billing your Gringotts account directly and two I suspect that I've just disrupted the plans of a couple people I can't stand. Trust me, that's repayment in itself. Now get outta here and see if you can't make your life just a little bit better."

I left the office not quite understanding just how much my life was about to change.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was rather stunned after leaving St Mungo's. Healer Cox had given me a fair bit to think about as well as reasons to worry about the results of the Dursleys years of systematic abuse. My most pressing thought however came once I left the hospital. I had no idea where the hell I was.

"Dobby!" I called out once I was relatively alone

"Yes Harry Potter sir?" came the familiar perpetually uncertain voice

"How did you get me here?" I asked finally able to contemplate the manner in which I had been taken from Durskaban

"I moved you" the elf replied in a maddening manner, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You can teleport people with you?" I asked still not quite believing how my day had gone "Wait, why did you not just kidnap me my second year when you wanted me away from Hogwarts?"

"Dobby could never hold Harry Potter against his will" Dobby started "Harry Potter is a great wizard. Dobby just wanted to make you choose to leave. Dobby didn't know that Harry Potter could beat the big monster. Dobby is sorry"

Fearing that the elf would start to either cry or just apologize profusely, drawing attention either way, I went to say that everything was alright when a thought occurred to me that should have years ago.

"Could you work for me?" I asked, breaking the elf out of his coming tangent

"Harry Potter would want Dobby to be his elf?" Dobby looked up at me in shock and glee "YES, YES DOBBY WOULD!"

"Calm down, I'm not bloody proposing" I muttered noticing that a couple wizards were looking in my direction "How would I go about hiring you?"

"Just hold out your wand and say 'I Harry Potter take this elf as my property'" Dobby replied grinning ear to ear

"I'm not enslaving you" I exclaimed "I would hire you for wage"

"What would Dobby do with money?" the elf asked

"What do you mean?" I replied

"Dobby could not put it in goblin bank, elves cannot have accounts there" he said "Dobby could put it in Harry Potter's sock that he gave to me but the sock is small and would be filled very quickly"

Groaning inwardly I realized that he had a point "I wouldn't want you to be my slave" I insisted

"Elves can buy things for their masters" Dobby said thinking "Harry Potter could order Dobby to buy things for myself but Dobby insists it not be much"

"Why would you want to work for so little though?" I asked still wanting an employee

"Harry Potter is Dobby's friend" the elf said in that same manner "Working for Harry Potter would be an honor"

"I will have Madam Malkin make you robes" noticing his look of horror I quickly added "I will not be giving you clothes, you will be buying yourself clothes and wearing them, and you will eat with me when we are at home deal?"

Dobby looked like he wanted to argue but relented and said "Deal"

"Okay, my wand is at home so we will take care of that later" I said looking over the list Healer Cox had given me "First thing first could you take me to Gringotts?"

"Of course Harry Potter sir" Dobby said grabbing my leg.

The next thing I knew I was in a place far more familiar to me, Diagon Alley, just outside Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

"Dobby will return to Hogwarts so he is not missed" Dobby said staring at the bank "Dobby will be here if Harry Potter calls, please though not in the goblin bank please. Goblins scare Dobby."

With that the house elf left and I was alone to ponder my thoughts on what an odd day it had been. I had gone from a day spent in pain to one that had seen me abducted from my home by a dear friend, brought to hospital and treated by a man who not only healed me but gave me advice on how to help my present situation. I realized with regret that I hadn't thanked Dobby for what he had done, I would need to when we got back to Durskaban.

Leaving my thoughts behind, I walked into the bank only to come upon another moment that would help to change my life. The bank was littered with witches and wizards as it had been every time that I had been there, but what was so different was the figure in the center. Everyone, even the wizards and witches gave this goblin a wide berth. He was slightly taller than most goblins and was dressed more ornately than any that I had ever seen. His clothing or obvious status wasn't what drew my attention though. What I was looking at in horror at that moment was the construction being done on the roof of the bank and the heavy metal girder that was just about to fall on that goblin. As I saw it slip, I dashed forward and tackled the obviously important goblin, just barely getting him out of the way. Next thing I knew the goblins that had been guarding the one I had saved had me bound on the ground with knives at my throat.

"Let him go" the important goblin growled "Why don't you idiots spend less of your time attacking the human who saved my life and more on finding the goblins whose incompetence nearly ended it"

The goblins ran off and the important one just sighed and clenched the bridge of his nose. Finally he looked down at me.

"I suppose I owe you rather a lot" he said with uncommon gentleness for a goblin "Get up and lets see what we at Gringotts can do to show my gratitude.

"Really it's no problem" I said getting up "My name is Harry Potter"

The Goblin scowled "Trust me Mr Potter, even to the goblins you need no introduction. We goblins take debts very seriously so don't tell me saving my life was nothing. You may call me Ragnok."

Looking sheepish and realizing that I was being a dumb ass, I followed Ragnok to his office, noting as I went that Gringotts was even more cavernous and expansive than I had thought.

"Perhaps I can help to touch up your portfolio Mr Potter" Ragnok said as we neared his office "Tell me what did your last quarterly report suggest about the state of the Potter finances?"

"Quarterly report?" I asked confused "I never get reports from Gringotts"

You could practically feel the air cool the moment those words left my lips. Ragnok whipped around with a look worthy of George C. Scott in the first third of A Christmas Carol.

"WHAT?" he hissed

How was I supposed to know how much that statement would infuriate the bank manager, or how many heads were about to roll because of it?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I stood there in confusion as Ragnok sat down at his desk and poured himself a drink from the crystal container on the shelves behind him. Its contents must have been rather potent as they made even the grizzled goblin grimace as they went down his throat. Visibly calmed but still angry, Ragnok just stared at me for a moment before beckoning me to sit and speaking.

"I will ask simple questions and I want very simple answers" he began "You are telling me that you have never received a single report from Gringotts in the time since you turned eleven years of age?

"Yes" I replied simply not wanting to further irritate the goblin

His scowl deepening, Ragnok continued "Have you ever met with your account manager or talked about your inheritance as the last of the Potters?"

Risking the question I asked "My account has a manager? I was never told."

Ragnok waved his hand over black orb on his desk and spoke into it. "Find me who is the account manager for the house of Potter"

After a few moments the voice of another goblin responded "It is Bloodclaw sir"

Ragnok sat there for a moment presumably pondering just how he wanted to deal with the matter at hand

"Get me a full audit of transactions made in regards to the Potter accounts since the deaths of the last holders" he said lost in thought "Bloodclaw is not to know about any of this for the time being, if he finds out I will be displeased. Am I clear?"

You could practically hear the gulp on the other end at the way Ragnok said displeased, before the goblin replied "Yes lord Ragnok"

He then turned his dark eyes and intense gaze back on me "Have you heard your parents will?"

"No sir I haven't" I replied, realizing that I probably should have "I hadn't actually thought about it"

At the word sir I saw genuine surprise in the goblin's face. It was the first time since we had entered his office that I saw anything on his face aside from anger or intense thought.

"Have a goblin other than Bloodclaw bring in the Potter will at once" he spoke again into the orb

When he next spoke to me his voice was far gentler than it had been before "I want you to tell me what business you have personally had with Gringotts since your eleventh birthday. Leave nothing out."

I told Ragnok about how I had come to learn of Gringotts from Hagrid before my first year. Figuring that he would know about the stone given that they had held it, I didn't bother leaving that part out. Finally I told him about the minor contact I had had with the bank since when I needed money from my trust vault.

Ragnok took a moment to think before speaking "I don't yet know why you weren't treated as any other human in your situation would have been but I will find out. As the sole heir of one of the noble human houses you should have been read your parents will upon your eleventh birthday and made aware of all that you will inherit when you turn seventeen."

"So my first visit here I would have been informed of all this?" I asked intrigued

"Yes unless someone in authority over your account placed an order to prevent that" Ragnok said clearly still irritated by the fact

"It will take us a few weeks to discover the identities of everyone involved in this however and I don't want to risk letting someone else potentially involved escape just because I went after the obvious one" Ragnok continued "In the mean time however, we should go over your parents will."

At that moment the black orb on Ragnok's desk started to glow and a voice came over it "I have the Potter will sir"

"Bring it in" Ragnok replied

Ragnok opened the large envelope and looked over its contents before reading

"The Last Will and Testament of James Potter and Lily Potter, enclosed a letter from the both of us to our son Harry.

We leave our entire estate to Harry James Potter, to be inherited upon his Seventeenth birthday. We leave also a trust fund to be refilled to the amount of 50,000 galleons annually from his eleventh birthday until he reaches the age of majority. He is to be left in the care of the following individuals. If one is not available for whatever reason, he is to be left with the next:

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Peter Petigrew

Frank and Alice Longbottom

Under no circumstances whatsoever is he to be let anywhere near Vernon and Petunia Dursley."

"What!?" I exclaimed enraged

Ragnok just raised an eyebrow at my anger

"I've lived with the Dursleys my whole life" I said seething as my mind spun "They're terrible people"

"You are saying that this will was directly violated?" Ragnok said angry again

"Yes" I replied "Every terrible thing growing up could have been avoided"

"Mr Potter, what terrible things" Ragnok asked even more seriously than he'd been before

My anger overrode my instinct not to talk about anything that happened at the Dursleys and the next thing I knew I was spilling every terrible moment of my childhood with those bastards. Through it all the goblin's scowl only grew until I was done. Actually talking about it had a rather cathartic effect and I ended up feeling slightly better after I was finished.

"If these Dursleys were goblins I would have their heads on spikes within the hour" Ragnok growled "These names in the will, do you recognize any of them?"

"I recognize all of them" I replied "Sirius Black is on the run from the ministry, falsely accused of killing Peter Petigrew and others that Petigrew killed, Petigrew isn't dead and is a death eater, I don't know where the Longbottoms are but I know their son doesn't live with them so they probably aren't an option."

"What of this Mr Lupin" Ragnok asked "Is there any reason you can think of that he wouldn't be a suitable guardian?"

"He's a werewolf but..." I started but was cut off

"Your ministry would never allow a werewolf to adopt a minor" Ragnok said grimly "They would fight it and members of the government would inevitably try to adopt you for the political advantage your fame would bring"

"Or worse reasons" I said thinking of Lucius Malfoy in particular. He would actually be worse than the Dursleys.

Ragnok scowled again looking over other papers from the will "There are other ways that they can be dealt with. Where is your residence anyway?"

"4 Privet Drive" I replied quietly, momentarily lost in thought about how I could deal with my situation

"Wait what?" Ragnok exclaimed

"4 Privet Drive" I repeated broken out of my thoughts by his surprise

"You mean this 4 Privet Drive" the goblin asked handing me a paper

Looking it over I could barely believe what I saw

James Potter

Potter Family Vault 750,000,000 Galleons, several old books and artifacts

Potter Manor, location enclosed

25% stock Nimbus Racing Broom Company

35% stock Daily Prophet

Lily Potter

Private Vault 250,000 Galleons, Personal Collection of notes and journals

4 Privet Drive Little Whinging, Surrey, England, Rental Property

"I OWN THEIR BLOODY HOUSE?!" I shouted

Ragnok gained a truly terrifying grin as he replied "It would appear so, yes"

A dozen different ways to use this flew through my head before Ragnok broke me out of my reverie

"Do you want my advise" he asked

"Yes please" I replied

"Don't get ahead of yourself Mr Potter" he began "This is undeniably good news, but you still don't have a viable alternative guardian for yourself. Beyond this, whoever is responsible for all of this must be exceedingly powerful. It would be unwise to evict them from their house immediately as you no-doubt want to without having a place for yourself to go"

Momentarily put off another idea struck me and I grinned "I can still use it blackmail material though"

"Precisely" Ragnok said, approval clearly visible on his face "My advise would be to blackmail them into just leaving you be for now. Even with the expense of school, you've more than enough money to feed and clothe yourself. Once you find a suitable guardian, I will personally oversee their financial and potentially physical destruction."

Suddenly happier than I had been in my life outside of Hogwarts another thought struck me "How did my family become so wealthy anyway?"

"The Potters are an old family. I'm not overly familiar with most human families, but the Potters earned the goblin's respect centuries ago as expert monster hunters." Ragnok explained "The Goblin Nation made a great deal of money buying and selling the body parts of the various rare and dangerous creatures they would kill."

A thought suddenly occurred to me "Like a Basilisk for instance?"

"Yes Basilisks are quite rare and rather valuable" Ragnok replied

"What if I happened to have 60 food basilisk corpse lying around?" I asked with a grin

Ragnok paused for a moment before saying with his eyebrow raised "Explain"

I told him the tale from my second year, of the attacks on the students, the threat of the school closing and finally the confrontation with the Basilisk and Riddle's ghost at the end.

Ragnok muttered what I can only assume was an expletive in Gobbledygook as he recovered from his shock. A goblin with his jaw dropped was not something I had seen before. It was a rather funny sight.

"Okay, go to the bookstore near here and ask for a book on the charms needed to harvest components from animal corpses." Ragnok said "Even just over a year later, that thing shouldn't be decayed at all. Powerful magical creatures can take a while to break down as their residual magical energy needs to wither first."

"How much do you think it could be worth?" I asked

"A Basilisk that big should bring in upwards of a million galleons" he replied to my shock "Anyway, here is the letter your parents left you and the list of their assets. I swear to you Mr Potter, I will discover who is responsible for all of this. May your fortune grow and your enemies cower at your feet"

Thanking him for all that he had done I left the bank, a couple hundred galleons in my pockets for the shopping I would need to do. Once I had exited the bank I called for Dobby.

"Harry Potter sir" the elf said appearing behind me "Harry Potter was with goblins a long time. Dobby was getting nervous."

"Trust me Dobby I am more than okay" I assured him "I'll explain on the way, come"

With that the elf and I went on small shopping trip, first hitting a shop wher I could buy a bag enchanted both to have more space inside that otherwise could and to be light as a feather, and then Flourish and Blotts. I bought everything on Healer Cox's list and books on the topic Ragnok had suggested. I also picked up a few things I thought sounded interesting. With that done I bought lunch, ignoring both Dobby's protests to eating with me and the odd looks I got for having lunch with a house elf. With that done, I instructed Dobby to take me back to Privet drive for what I knew would be most entertaining confrontation.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As Dobby returned me to my room I went over what I was going to say again. I had spent much of the last hour debating in my head which of the many different ways I could go about telling them off I was going to choose. I was still seething that they'd the nerve to treat me as they had when they were living rent free in a house I owned. All they had ever paid me in was abuse and misery. I would pay that debt back soon.

"Where is that freak?" Vernon grumbled "If he thinks he's eating tonight without doing the cleaning he has another thing coming"

The moment Vernon saw me descending the stairs he ran at me. Having anticipated this I had instructed Dobby to trip him before came too close. Landing with a thud, he immediately looked up at me with hatred in his eyes before gasping for breath and grabbing his neck. Unlike the hovering charm from the summer before my second year, these little bits of magic were minor and wouldn't be detected by the ministry as they weren't coming from human magic.

"Be silent you bastard" I hissed, enjoying the fact that he thought this magic was coming from me "All this time you lived in this house, not paying a cent for it, and you had the nerve to treat me like shit"

Both Vernon, and Petunia who had just entered the kitchen to see what was going on paled at this comment.

"Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?" I asked not particularly caring just what they would say

"You listen to me you little..." Vernon started before Petunia cut him off

"Vernon" she hissed

"Thank you Petunia" I said still glaring at them both "for having the good sense to be frightened. As you are more likely to know than he is, financial crimes in the wizarding world are not dealt with by courts. You would be given no trial, no fairness, you would simply disappear."

"That's not possible" Vernon growled, his whole bloated carcass straining visibly as he tried to get up

"Yes it is" I growled right back at him "Now, I'm not here to demand the money or even to tell you I'm bringing this to the authorities. I'm giving you one simple demand. Leave me the hell alone."

"What?" Petunia asked still pale

"For the couple months that I'm stuck being here we ignore each other" I said "I feed myself and the only thing I require is the bed to sleep in. Aside from that we owe each other nothing. I am not your servant."

"And no one else will become involved" Petunia asked still attempting to keep Vernon quiet

"I give you my word not a single human being magical or other wise will become involved" I said having to fight to suppress my grin

A look of relief washed over Petunia and I left confident that I had made my point. The one thing the bastards truly cared about was money. The fear of losing any other it would serve to keep them in check long enough.

Closing my door behind me I sat on my bed and took a couple deep breaths. Telling them off even just minimally was exhilarating. I had been pushed around my entire life and I wasn't going to put up with it any longer. After a few moments Dobby joined me.

"Is Harry Potter sure choking the walrus man was a good idea?" he asked

Taking a moment to imagine Dobby dressed as Darth Vader and grinning, I then replied "He would never have sat still or quiet long enough to get across my point. Getting the authorities involved would be fun but I can't yet do so."

Taking out my wand I changed the subject "We should get you working for me."

"Harry Potter remembers what to say?" Dobby asked

Nodding, I hovered the wand over his head and said "I, Harry Potter take this elf as my property"

With that both the tip of the wand and Dobby glowed for a second before returning to normal.

"First things first though, I need to ask, can you teleport me to Hogwarts?" I asked

"Yes Harry Potter sir" he replied "The wards don't effect elf magic"

"Is that all wards?" I asked

"Some stop us but most rich wizards is using elves to do their shopping so their wards keep out only other wizards" Dobby replied

I thought about it and it did make sense. Most wizards were arrogant fools who, being able to apparate themselves, wouldn't think to ask their elves to help them move about and would never think that elves could do anything to hurt them. I would have to ponder the potential ways that I could use this.

"Dobby call me Harry" I said firmly

"Dobby could never..." he started before I cut him off

"I must insist on this one" I pressed "Consider it an order if you will"

"Alright Harry P...Harry" he struggled to say

Happy for that slight symbol of Dobby not being a servant, I took the Marauder's Map out of my trunk and activated it. Dumbledore was in his office, making me wonder if he ever truly left but it was otherwise empty.

Grabbing my cloak, I spoke to Dobby "I need you to teleport me within the castle, specifically the second floor."

Dobby took my arm and I wrapped the invisibility cloak around us so as not to alert the ghosts, especially considering where we were going. Upon arriving there I made my way to Myrtle's Bathroom and went up to the sink that responded to Parseltongue.

"_Open" _I literally hissed

The passage opened quickly and a thought occurred to me

"_Stairs_" within seconds stairs had appeared that lead all the way down to the chamber.

'Stupid fucking idiot' I thought to myself 'Granted Ron and I were panicked at the time but still, I should have thought to try that'

Closing the entrance behind us, I walked with Dobby down the old, decrepit stairway into the ancient tunnel. Marveling at just how expansive the chamber was, it occurred to me just how perfect this place would be as a base of operations. Technically within Hogwarts grounds, I could practice magic here any time without issue and the only other person on the planet who could get it could never get past the Hogwarts wards. It needed work for sure but there was significant potential here. Upon reaching the still intact corpse of the basilisk, Dobby let out a gasp.

"Harry Potter killed that?" he said in disbelief

'Mental note, work on his grammar' I thought to myself before responding "Yep, I've got the scar to show for it"

"Harry Potter is truly great wizard" he said in awe

"Listen Dobby" I started still thinking over everything that needed to be done here "Do you think you'd be able to clean this place up and repair it?"

"Dobby could" he replied still in staring in awe at the corpse "These rocks can be moved"

With that he started moving a few rocks that had long ago fallen against a wall in the chamber. As they started moving away one by one I noticed that there was a path behind it. When finally each piece of what appeared to have at one time been a statue was moved, I entered the passage and cast the Lumos spell to look around. The room appeared to have a one point been a sort of study. There were a few shelves around the room with ancient looking books on them and a desk I the center. What was most interesting however was a marble podium to one side of the room. Sitting on it was a large, leather bound book. Picking it up I blew the dust off the cover and opened it slowly so as not to damage it. In astonishment I realized just what it was I was holding.

"This is Slytherin's Grimoire" I gasped

Bringing it out of the uncovered chamber, I realized that Voldemort must simply of thought the Basilisk the only thing of worth in the chamber and not bothered to have explored the rest of it. If he had, he presumably would have cleaned up a little as he spent time here. It was just like him to think a weapon the only thing worth storing away for future use.

"Dobby do you have any idea how long it might take to clean up the chamber?" I asked

"It will be taking weeks, even months Harry Po...Harry" the elf replied, just now looking around at the entirety of the room

Nodding at that I opened the book and started looking over just what Salazar Slytherin had thought worth recording. After the first few pages I realized it would take quite some time to pour over all of the knowledge that the legendary wizard had stored in this lengthy tome. The last few dozen pages however contained what was by far the most interesting to me. The pages detailed how, using a complex set of runes and arithmantic calculations, one could alter their physical form to be closer to that of a magical creature. The only external ingredient required was a sample of the intended creature's blood. Aside from that the notes stated that intent played a significant role as the blood could only be used to create a singular, specific change. The only warning given was to not use this for more than ten creatures, lest one make oneself overly inhuman.

"Slytherin must have been one hell of teacher" I commented to myself "Even his own personal notes are detailed and easy to follow.

"What did Harry Potter find?" Dobby asked noticing my sudden interest

"Something that I think will really come in handy" I replied with a grin.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is the first fic I've ever written and I could really use some criticism/reviews.**

**Thanks and Happy Holidays**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It had been one hell of a month. Every day since Dobby had come to me and helped me away from the Dursleys had been amazing. Now halfway through July, I could barely believe how much my life had changed, or how much I had. Looking at myself in the mirror, the change was night and day from how scrawny and underfed I had looked a month ago. Now several inches taller, and rather broader I actually looked above average in terms of development for the first time in my life. Between the nutrient potions, proper meals, and the giant's blood I had used in Slytherin's ritual, I had grown significantly. Instead of attempting to become larger than a regular human, I had merely used it to change my standard musculature. The most useful changes however had been Sphinx blood for improved capacity of the brain and Hippogriff blood for improved eyesight.

'Well, most immediately useful' I thought to myself with a laugh as I looked down 'Centaur blood, great idea, or the greatest idea?"

With the improved ability to learn had come a certain ease with which I went through material. One of the things healer Cox had suggested I learn was the dual art of Legitimacy and Occlumency. I hadn't been back to see him since, and I didn't know why he would suggest a now fourteen year old boy attempt to learn such a thing, but I was making significant progress. In spite of all the great things that had changed in my life however, none of them were what was on my mind at that moment.

"Dobby" I called seconds before he arrived. He too had made significant progress on his work in the chamber, His grammar had improved a bit too.

"Yes Harry" he answered

"Take a look at this" I said handing him the newspaper "Try not to vomit"

"Lucius Malfoy humanitarian of the year?" Dobby said looking revolted "Why are you calling Dobby out of the chamber to read this?"

"There is a two day event in Magical Cardiff, with other equally poorly given awards" I said "What I want to know is, when the Malfoys leave the country, do they leave their house elves behind?"

"No Harry" Dobby replied "They is wanting servants with them at all times, leaving only wards"

"Which you can get through?" I asked with a grin

"We is doing something illegal today isn't we?" Dobby asked with minor reluctance

"We **are** doing something illegal" I corrected "And yes we are. Don't you want a chance to get back at the wankers who mistreated you?"

"Dobby would have had to do terrible things to himself for even thinking of such things before" he replied

"Well you are my friend and house elf now" I said grabbing my cloak "Times have changed"

"We are leaving now?" Dobby asked

"The event started starts later today" I replied wrapping the cloak around me "The Malfoys will probably leave soonish but I do have an errand to deal with first. Take me to the chamber?"

Arriving in the centre of the room I was at once struck by the familiar sight of the basilisk corpse and what I had to admit was amazing progress on Dobby's part. The place was actually starting to look livable.

"Harry is ready to cut up the giant beast?" Dobby asked

"Yeah the spells needed are difficult but I've got them down finally" I replied "Hunting for food turned out to be both useful and educational"

"That reminds Dobby" the elf replied "We is...are running out of deer meat"

"Noted" I said as I got to work

Starting out with a spell that carefully drew the venom from the creature's fangs, I placed it in specially enchanted vials. Basilisk venom was one of the most dangerous substances in the world. I'd have been an idiot to leave such a massive quantity of it just lying down here. From there, I extracted the teeth and got to work cutting the beast open across his underbelly. The whole process took hours, but slowly I managed to cut away and secure its various organs. I even managed to siphon off most of the blood. Finally, I removed the hide and separated the meat from the bones.

"You think thousand year old basilisk meat would be any good?" I asked mostly in jest

"Probably not" Dobby replied from where he was working on repairs

"So we sell most of blood, the organs, the bones and teeth, and if anyone will take it, the meat" I said aloud

"We are keeping parts of it?" Dobby asked in surprise

"Yes" I said as I moved the various parts into simpler piles "The venom is priceless, its mine, and the heartstrings could be useful if I wanted to get another wand made. The rest I'm selling to the goblins"

"You leaving now?" he asked

"Yes but not for the bank just yet" I replied "Its time to pay a little visit to your old home"

It still amazed me how arrogant wizards were to not ward against house elves. All I needed was to get Dobby to bring me along and he could get into most residences, not that I had taken advantage of that before today. Upon arriving in the Malfoy manor, Dobby and I took a few moments to silently sneak around and ensure that the house was in fact empty. Marvelling once again at the stupidity of leaving one's only defence a security system that specific creatures could get through because they weren't considered a threat, I had Dobby start telekinetically moving objects into the enchanted bag I was holding.

"We are really taking everything?" Dobby whispered

"Well I'm here more for their rare or dark books than anything but this junk means something to them and after everything these pricks have put us through, I figure what the hell" I replied

After stripping the ground and second floors of everything of worth, we headed to their basement. This was where Lucius kept his most treasured dark objects, and banned books. It was also as I learned where he kept his collection of rare spirits.

'These will make lovely gifts and or bribes' I thought to myself

"Where is it down here that Lucius keeps his collection?" I whispered to Dobby

"It is here, look" Dobby replied just before pressing in a particular brick. With that done, a wall split apart, revealing a small cupboard with dozens of books and several interesting looking objects.

Looking over the books, I realized that this collection must have cost a fortune, likely having been collected by generations of Malfoys. It was with particular pleasure that I watched the various items fly into the bag I had brought.

"Why does Harry...I mean Why do you want these dark books?" Dobby asked

"It's not so much for my own use so as to keep them away from the Malfoy" I replied "That being said, if I am to fight the so-called dark lord, it would be helpful to learn more about just what I could be up against. Now are you sure this is everything?"

"Yes" he replied simply "Dobby knows every part of this house, we have gone through it all. Mast...Lucius will be very angry."

"That's the idea" I said with a smirk "Now come we should return to the chamber"

It took us a little while to unload all that we had taken into the chamber. Choosing to sort it all later, I resumed my training from where I had left off the day before. With the improved memory and learning ability gained from the Sphinx, I had gone over all of the previous years curriculums, mastering each of the spells that I had only adequately learned before. Now I was going through spells that my books claimed would likely fall into fourth year classes. Given Lockhart, I knew this would not necessarily be the case.

As I trained I called to Dobby "Would you mind unloading the Basilisk parts with Ragnok?"

"Yes Harry, Dobby doesn't mind" With that he left, taking some of the components with him

Having Dobby meet Ragnok had been quite helpful as he was no longer afraid of the goblins. The two had both been such good friends to me, I wanted them to get along. I would need to get Ron and Hermione to meet them at some point.

A couple hours later Dobby and I apparated to just a couple blocks away from Malfoy's residence. Watching the home through an enchanted old spyglass, I had figured that they would leave right after the ceremony and I was correct as it was only a couple minutes later that I saw cloaked figures apparate to the entrance. Dobby and I both couldn't help but laugh at the twin effeminate screams that sounded across the sky. It got even funnier when we realized that Mrs. Malfoy wasn't with them.

When we arrived back in my room, Dobby returned to the bank to continue unloading the basilisk and I did as I had every day for the past month. I sat down on my bed and stared at my parent's letter. My whole life I had wanted more than anything to be able to talk to them. The pictures Hagrid had given me at the end of my first year were easily my most treasured possessions but they weren't communicative. Now that I had a letter from them though, I hadn't been able to open it. I honestly couldn't say just what I was afraid of. I was a year old when they wrote it, they couldn't have disapproved of me then or anything.

"Though I doubt they'd approve of what I did today" I said chuckled to myself only half serious

The absurdity of the fact that I had faced down terrible monsters and even the psychopath that had killed my parents without pause, but a letter terrified me wasn't lost on me. Still, whether it was my continued good mood over the Malfoys or just that the desire to read it had finally grown beyond my remaining irrational apprehension, I found myself actually opening it. My heart raced as I read the only message from my parents I was likely to get in this life.

_Harry_

_I can't tell you how much I hope that you never have to read this and that we are able to tell you all this and more many years from now but, on the off chance that you escape this even if we don't, we can't leave you without this much. If you are reading it, I pray it finds you well and happy in spite everything. Your father and I have tried so desperately to evade what's coming for us and Dumbledore assures us that the protections he's casting will work but Voldemort, the man who hunts us is just so powerful._

_**Son, it may seem odd or paranoid of us to write you this, but if you are reading it well, your mother and I are both so sorry. I personally hope I get to throw this in a fire some day, a memory of a more dangerous time but, we couldn't avoid preparing just in case all else failed.**_

_You have to know Harry, that Voldemort, hunts us to find you, right now he wants nothing more than to kill you. Dumbledore knows why but just in case he hasn't yet told you there was a prophecy made before you were born. It goes as follows_

_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches_

_born to those who thrice defied him born as the seventh month dies_

_and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power that the Dark Lord knows not_

_and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives_

_the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month dies._

_**You are one of two babies this could apply to, and he is trying to find you both. Voldemort knows only the first couple lines. If we failed but you lived you will need to ready yourself to deal with not just him but his followers. In my vault there is a great number of books on defensive magic. Make use of them. If Minerva and Filius are both still at Hogwarts use their knowledge as well. Don't be afraid to ask either of them or Dumbledore himself for additional help preparing.**_

_Know that we both love you so much. As your father said we both know that if you end up reading this then you will have to prepare for so much, I've left a few things in my vault that may help with that. Be sure to sure to learn as much as you can because your father is right and you will have a number of enemies to deal with. You will need to find people that you can trust because the Ministry will not be of help to you, no matter how many of their people try to convince you otherwise._

_**Don't forget to have fun though. Play Quidditch, enjoy time with friends, play some pranks, date some girls. If you let your enemies rule your life they've already won.**_

_Know that none of this was your fault. Don't blame yourself or you will answer to me someday young man._

_Love Mom **and** **Dad**_

I found myself caught between my tears at reading this message from my parents and anger that all of this was the result of a prophecy.

Before I could deal with either thought though, Dobby appeared in my room looking urgent.

"Ragnok said to tell you he knows who placed you with the walrus man and stick woman."

For a moment, I could only stare, my mind lost in thought.

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><p><strong>AN** Please Review and give criticism about what could use improvement.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Upon entering the bank, I was at once ushered over to Ragnok's office. It had been a week since I had last seen him and when last I'd been here, he mentioned being rather close to uncovering everything. I still hadn't thought it would be so soon however. As the door to his office opened a peculiar sight greeted me. Ragnok sat behind his desk, as was typical, however he was glaring at a goblin chained to floor and held in place by two large goblins. The goblin in chains looked as if he had seen better days and I figured as I looked him over that Ragnok had just finished confirming his previous findings by force.

"Ah Harry" he greeted me as I entered. I had insisted he drop the Mr Potter thing. "Come in"

"I take it this is Bloodclaw?" I asked wincing slightly as the beaten goblin turned to glare at me

"Yes he is" Ragnok replied before turning to his guards "Leave us"

They left us alone and Ragnok took a moment before started. "As we knew, someone placed an order that your parent's will be ignored so that you could be sent to live with your relatives. What we have learned was that this was done, by Bloodclaw here, on the orders of Albus Dumbledore"

My jaw dropped in shock "That's impossible, he wouldn't do that. Why?" I struggled to get out

"According to Bloodclaw's own words" Ragnok replied "Dumbledore wanted you placed in the non-magical world so that you would grow up without your fame or being able to grow accustomed to being treated as royalty"

"That's insane" I said reeling from the idea that a man I looked up to could be responsible for sentencing me to years of torment

"Thankfully there doesn't appear to be much more." Ragnok said grimly "At first I had thought he may have used this as an opportunity to steal from you but thankfully this isn't the case. Rather he just isolated you from ever hearing from the bank or presumably, anyone else. That being said, if he has dared to interfere in goblin business, there are likely other ways that he has interfered in your life. You will want to investigate as much as possible the other ways that he could have done anything."

"What can be done about this?" I asked having grown quite angry

"Very little in regards to Dumbledore I'm afraid" Ragnok said clearly angry himself "The man's political clout is second to none. I'd have an easier time dragging the minister himself in here"

Taking a moment to calm himself Ragnok continued "For Bloodclaw here however, that is different."

"What is to be done with him?" I asked glaring at the goblin

"Bloodclaw broke the law the goblin nation" Ragnok said looking at the bound goblin "He took a bribe from a wizard to undermine the impartial laws that govern this bank. In so doing, he dishonored himself and Goblin Nation, and put the life of a child at risk"

By this point both of us were openly glaring at the goblin, who to his credit was smart enough to look terrified.

Ragnok continued "If these crimes had been commited against a goblin, that goblin would have the right to execute him here and now."

With that said Ragnok rose and opened a nearby cabinet. From within it he took out a long thin sword, not entirely unlike the sword of Gryffindor. He then brought that sword to me.

"Humans normally wouldn't be given this opportunity to avenge themselves" he started "But in this case I'm disgusted enough to make an exception"

"What?!" Bloodclaw shouted, the first thing he had said since I arrived

"You want me to kill him?" I asked in horror

"Silence" Ragnok hissed, bringing the hilt of the weapon against Bloodclaw's jaw. He then turned to me "Yes, I do"

"But..." I tried to say

"There is no harm or shame in avenging yourself" Ragnok said calmly "To kill ones such as he is not a bad thing. You replace evil or dishonor with death, and in so doing you improve the world. Would you not do so if your Voldemort were similarly bound?"

"Voldemort is a monster" I said still unsure of what to do "He has killed hundreds if not thousands of people, including my parents."

"And Bloodclaw very nearly killed you" Ragnok said, fully aware of the abuse I had suffered "He will die either way, but I think it should be at your hand."

Wielding the sword in earnest, I approached the wounded goblin. He looked so pitiful here, broken and chained to the ground. I could hardly imagine such a creature being responsible for the damage done to me in my life. But that damage was done none the less.

"Pierce him between the center ribs on his left" Ragnok said calmly "He will die a quick death"

I did so, driving the blade into his heart. The air left his lungs in a single exhale and before long he was dead. As I watched the light behind his eyes go out I felt ashamed, even disgusted with myself, but I realized that this goblin had wronged not only me but my parents. By denying their final wishes he had antagonized my family and for that crime he had died. I pulled the sword out of his body and turned to face Ragnok.

He looked pleased with me and tossed me a cloth handkerchief, simply pointing to the blade. As I cleaned it he spoke.

"One of my biggest problems with human societies, magical or not, is the idea you have of executioners." he said "Among the goblins it is understood that if one has not the stomach for justice, one does not get it. If you hadn't done it, I would have but that would have been because of the crime against the bank as well"

"So one must seek justice themselves once the state has determined it proper?" I asked

"Yes" Ragnok replied "On the topic of justice, the Goblin Nation exists more as a facilitator than anything else"

It was an interesting way of looking at justice and one that, as my stomach calmed, I realized that I had minimal problem with. Looking at the older goblin, I had but one question left.

"What would suggest I do about Dumbledore?" I asked

Ragnok looked grim as he replied "I honestly don't know. I knew that to pull something like this off the culprit had to be powerful but I didn't anticipate it would be the most powerful wizard in the country."

"I still can't believe that he of all people was responsible" I said irritated "He's my headmaster, almost everyone I know sees him as a great man."

"That is the other problem" Ragnok said "He has particular power over you through his role at your school. If you tried to take him to court, there is little guarantee you would win, and you would show your hand either way."

"Your advising only caution for now" I guessed

"Exactly" Ragnok replied "If what you say about Voldemort if correct, you have plenty of other problems to contend with."

"And if I can prove Sirius' innocence, even Dumbledore won't have the ability to stand in the way of my going to live with him." I said "Until then, especially if Dumbledore is involved, I can't risk leaving completely. He could be monitoring the home to some extent."

"Patience is key Harry" Ragnok said "In the mean time, with Bloodclaw removed, there is no one else that in the bank who could look over your accounts. If you want to look at your parent's vaults, you can touch anything in there except for the actual money immediately. That money is yours once you turn seventeen."

"Who will become my new accounts manager?" I asked

"Until I can be sure that Dumbledore has no other goblins under his sway I will be looking over things personally" Ragnok replied "A single account doesn't translate to much additional work"

"Thank you" I said earnestly "I'd like to look at my mother's vault before I leave actually"

"Alright then" Ragnok said leading me to the vault personally. I sympathized with the goblin, realizing suddenly that I also no longer knew just how many of the people I interacted with on a regular basis were trustworthy. It pained me to think that if Dumbledore of all people was able to hurt me so, even my closest friends could be similarly treacherous.

Reaching the vault, Ragnok opened the door and ushered me in. It was quite different to see a vault with more than just money. To the side were huge stacks of coins that I could see were even greater than those in my trust vault. The center of the room was taken up by a pile of leather-bound books, on top of which was a heavy envelope. Opening that I read:

_Hello Harry_

_Your father and I wrote you a letter already which, if you are reading this should already have been given to you. If you escape Voldemort without us, you will need to be prepared for him and the psychopaths that follow him. Your father has a set of auror-grade defense manuals in his vault, and I would suggest you go through them but here I leave you something else which may be of help. My whole life. from the moment I learned that I could do magic, I journaled almost daily about my experiences. I've edited out all the more personal parts as I doubt you wish to read them so if there are large sections covered in ink, don't be alarmed. What remains are my observations of the wizarding world and my own magical work, including a few spells of my own invention. The wizarding world is a very backward place and is ruled by inept small-minded fools. I only hope that some of my own experiences will help you as you navigate the messier side of things. As heir to the Potters, you won't have as much choice in that regard as I did. Take the knowledge I would have imparted on you myself if I could and be safe and...do whatever you can to be happy as well._

_PS:If you don't already know, I have living family in my sister Petunia, her husband and her son. Please don't seek them out, just trust me that it wouldn't go well._

_I love you_

_Mom_

Wiping a tear from my eye and laughing bitterly at the last part of her letter, I carefully placed it back in envelope and placed it in my jacket.

Turning to Ragnok I asked "So I can removed things from here other than the money?"

"That is correct" He replied

I made quick work of getting the large collection of journals into my enchanted bag before thanking Ragnok again for all that he had done for me and getting Dobby to bring me to the chamber. Once there I took a moment to just sit down and rest. To say that it had been an emotionally exhausting day would have been a terrible understatement. I honestly didn't know which of the two major revelations I had gotten was more surprising. Not that he needed much reason to kill, but learning that Voldemort had ruined my life over something as simple as a bloody prophecy was infuriating, and I didn't even know what to think about Dumbledore yet. I would look over my mother's journals in the coming days, not wanting any further surprises today. All I knew, given what I had learned today was that I would not be the same trusting, slacker of child I had been before. If Voldemort wanted a fight I would damn well give him one, and if Dumbledore wanted to stand in my way, I would view him no differently.

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><p><strong>AN **Reviews and advice are more than welcomed


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The rest of the summer passed smoothly. I worked my way through material in most subjects up to what the books considered to be fifth year material. At this rate I would be mastering post-NEWT level magic in no time, though ironically, I wouldn't have as much time to put toward my studies at school. Even in potions I had, going back to the beginning, made my way straight to fourth year work. Snape would still be his usual charming self but he wouldn't be able to make me feel stupid this year, and thanks to the anti-tampering charms I had placed on my cauldron, Malfoy wouldn't be able to either.

Now though I'm able to deal with an entirely different entity, fun. Spending an entire summer working wasn't new to me, though working on things I wanted to do was. Still when Ron wrote me and told me about the World Quidditch Cup, I was thrilled at the idea to say the least. Sending Hedwig with my enthusiastic yes, I realized that I had barely thought of Quidditch or even flying in the time since I last left Hogwarts. Usually a great deal of my time at Durskaban was spent thinking about flying, a lone respite from their terrible treatment.

"You are leaving already Harry?" Dobby asked, suddenly at my side

For all that I had changed, to see the elf, wearing the custom robes I'd had made, and hear him speaking proper English seemed an even greater change.

"Yes, I'll be going with the Weasleys to see the Quidditch World Cup" I replied "You know what you're to do while I'm gone?"

"I'll be finishing up work in the Chamber of Secrets and begin sorting through Slytherin and Malfoy's things" Dobby replied

"Correct" I said happily "I doubt that I'll need to call on you but be available just in case"

With that Dobby departed and I made my way to the Weasley residence via the knight bus. I didn't want to tell anyone, especially Hermione about Dobby yet, so the knight bus made for a plausible means of getting over there. The bus was as bizarre and uncomfortable as the first time I used it, but at least it was relatively fast. The Burrow was far enough into the country that the bus only let me off a ways from it and I got a fair walk in on my way. As I walked the rest of the way I contemplated just what I was going to tell everyone. It would have been my old instinct to tell Ron and Hermione about everything, but so much had changed in the last couple months.

With some reluctance, I contemplated the possibility of using legilimency. I had gotten rather good at it over the summer, being able to use my idiot relatives as test subjects without their knowing. I could read surface thoughts with ease, though getting into the mind of a skilled occlumens would still be beyond me. I normally wouldn't think to invade the privacy of those a cared about in such a way but, with what I had learned about Dumbledore, I couldn't be careless in the trust I placed in people, even those I counted as friends. I would take more time to contemplate whether or not I would truly cross this line however.

Arriving at the familiar, unusual structure of the Burrow and knocking on the door, I was immediately greeted by the twins.

"My my George" Presumably Fred said upon seeing me "What have we here?"

"I'm Fred" said the other "It looks like a young wizard we know, but we can't quite be sure"

"Yes that's quite right brother I'm George. You can tell because I'm the better looking one" Said possibly George "It looks like it could be Harry-kins but he's grown about a foot"

"Our dear sister's eyes might well fall out of her head when she sees this" said possibly Fred

Knowing that they were talking about Ginny, but wanting to screw with them I said "So Percy finally got that sex change?"

Possibly Fred's spit take was every bit as funny as I had hoped and the slack jawed look on both their faces gave me a chance to speak.

"Are you two going to stand there flirting or invite me in?" I laughed

"My my George" possibly Fred said "It seems more has changed in young Harry than meets the eye"

"Whole new bloke" I said in agreement and walked through the door "How has the summer been?"

"All good except for Percy" Possibly George replied

"Ever since he started working for the Ministry" said Possibly Fred

"He's barely spoken to anyone all summer except to criticize Dad's ideas about the Ministry" said George

"It's driving Mum batty" said Fred

Their back and forth was as seamless as ever. Given all that I had researched this summer, I still had no idea how they seemed to almost read each other's minds at times. Percy had always been a prat but I had never heard the twins speak so seriously about it, or anything really.

Before I could ask the twins anything else Ron caught sight of me and ran over "Harry, hey mate"

"Hey Ron" I said with a smile. Despite my concerns about everyone close to me, it was still good to see my oldest friend.

"How was your summer?" he asked

"It was okay" I said not wanting to reveal anything to anyone just yet "Kinda boring"

"Ah well, you wanna play chess before we go?" he asked

'It's either chess or Quiddich' I thought with amusement "Sure"

As we left to head upstairs, I accidentally bumped into a different redhead. Standing in front of me was Ginny Weasley. I apparently wasn't the only one who had grown and as I took in the image of her, I realized that she had gotten kinda cute.

"Hello Harry. You sure grew this summer" she said calmly and I was momentarily taken aback that she had spoken to me at all. She bit her lower lip and looked me over, her already brown eyes darkening slightly.

Before I could say anything I was beset by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny reluctantly left to go upstairs.

"Harry" Mrs Weasley exclaimed, engulfing me in a hug "I see those muggles finally started feeding you"

"Hello Harry" Mr Weasley said, far more reserved than his wife. I shook his hand and enjoyed the warm welcome they all gave me. Even though I had made a couple genuine friends in Dobby and Ragnok this summer, and had been spared the Dursleys for the most part, it was still special coming to the Burrow. It was the first place aside from Hogwarts where I had truly felt as though I was wanted. With an internal grimace, I hoped once again that none of it was a lie. Once the Weasleys finished welcoming me and told me that we would be leaving in an hour or so, I left with Ron to the living room.

"Just a second mate" I said looking up the stairs "I uh need to use the loo"

He nodded and I ascended the staircase. I had contemplated many things over the summer, many to do with Voldemort, but one of the ones that had weighed on me most was just what a moron I had been the last year. I better than anyone knew what it was like to be in the bastard's cross-hairs and yet I had barely even spoken to the girl whom he had possessed since I saved her. Walking up to her door, I heard her make an odd sound just as I knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" She said sounding frustrated

"Ginny, it's Harry, can we talk?" I asked

"Just a second" She replied, taking a moment before opening her door. She looked flushed and her fiery hair was slightly dishevelled

"What is it?" she asked

"I uh" I paused for a moment as words failed me

Realizing my discomfort, Ginny looked around for a second before saying "Come in"

Entering her room with slight hesitation, I saw that it didn't appear as I had figured a girl's bedroom would look like. The colour pattern was rather subdued, and the furniture simple. What little there was on the walls were a couple posters for bands that I had never heard of, though these looked rather old and worn. Sitting next to her on her bed, I contemplated what I wanted to say.

"I owe you an apology" I said simply, eliciting a look of surprise from the younger girl.

"What?" She asked in genuine surprise

"I should have asked you a year ago how you were doing after everything that happened with the chamber and" I said pausing for second "It didn't even occur to me"

"Harry you saved my life" Ginny replied, still surprised by what I had to say "You don't really owe me anything after that. I owe you"

"I disagree" I said "I know Tom better than most and I know better than anyone what it's like to be targeted by him so young. I should have asked you this a year ago but, how are you doing?"

Ginny seemed reluctant to reply, and I recognized that reluctance from my own to talk about the Dursleys. After a time she did reply.

"It's gotten at once easier and more difficult" She said cryptically "I want to talk to you about this but..."

"I know what it's like not to want to talk about bad things, but know that none of it was your fault" I said firmly

"If only it were that simple" She said, smiling without humour or happiness "And it is my fault"

"Ginny older people than you have been fooled by that bastard" I said with conviction "You were only eleven and yet you still were able to withstand him for months, you are a hero more than anything."

"Harry" she tried to say in protest, but I continued

"Voldemort's one goal in life is to kill everything that stands in his way" I spat "He would have killed everyone he set the basilisk after if he had only his own influence to contend with but he didn't. You alone are all that could have stopped him from killing that year. You are as much a hero as I am, possibly more because..."

Before I could finish, she flew into my arms, wrapping me in hug and resting her head on my shoulder.

"Thank you" She whispered

Holding her for a moment, and trying to ignore the feel of her nubile body against me I continued "What I truly wanted to say is that even though I may not know what it's like to be possessed by him, I know what he is like. If you want to talk about anything to do with that, or anything else really, I'm here."

"I want to talk to you about this Harry" She said looking me in eye again "But I can't yet, not here. I'll seek you out at Hogwarts but please, tell no one, not even Ron or Hermione about it."

"You have my word" I said standing

"Thank you Harry" She said "I didn't expect you to come to me like this"

"I'm glad that you started talking to me" I said with a slight grin

"You aren't the only one that has changed" She said with a shrug "What did happen to your glasses anyway"

"Muggle technology called contact lenses" I said, delivering the same lie I had given the rest of her family just now

"I like it" She said biting her lower lip again "Shows off those lovely eyes of yours"

I blushed and thanked her for the complement dumbly before leaving the room. Rejoining Ron, he appeared not to think it odd that I had spent the last 15 minutes in the 'loo.' Given his simple nature I doubted that he could be really be as deceitful as Dumbledore but I still had to be careful. Getting my ass kicked at chess, but putting up more of a fight than I had before, the game finished just as Hermione arrived.

"Harry" She said wrapping me in hug. I couldn't help but realize and appreciate that she had filled out a fair bit as well.

"Can't breathe" I jokingly gasped. She let go and hit me playfully on shoulder when she realized I was joking.

"Where are your glasses? You really grew. How was your summer? Have you started reading the books for the year?" she rushed out the questions in a single breathe and I felt the need to cut her off before she passed out

"Breathe Hermione" I said grinning "Contacts, yes I did, kinda boring, and yes I have actually"

"Really" she said in surprise "That's proactive of you and when did you get contacts?"

"There was enough money in my vault to cover it and my old glasses weren't really working" That last bit at least was true "And I decided to get on top of my studies this year"

"Why?" Ron asked seemingly affronted by the idea

"I've a raging psychopath after my blood, learning more can't hurt" I replied with a shrug

"Seems like a waste of time to me" Ron said, seeming to have entirely not heard me

"It is not" Hermione said hotly

Taking that as my queue to back away slowly and leave them to their inevitable argument, I approached Mr Weasley.

"Are we leaving soon?" I asked

"Actually we should about now" He replied "Molly, could you gather everyone?"

"Yes dear" she said before calling Ginny and the twins to the kitchen.

We left via portkey, which I found immediately to be infinitely less pleasant than travelling with Dobby and arrived in the middle of a bunch of tents. We ignored them for the time being and travelled over to stadium. As we walked I was struck by just how many people were here. Given the minor school games that I had seen prior, I hadn't really thought of just how much more grand this event would be. There were obviously wizards and witches of multiple different backgrounds here and I wondered just how big a crowd would end up here when everyone arrived.

"When does the game start?" I asked

"Should be in about half an hour" Mr Weasley replied

As we were about to take our seats we ran into the Malfoys who were walking with Minister Fudge and other man who looked to be equally important. Draco came over speak to us.

"Hello Potter, Weasleys" he said sneering "How sad that just any riffraff can get to see this"

He said it quietly enough that only Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the twins and I heard but I doubt Lucius or Fudge for that matter would have thought anything of it had he been louder.

"My father is very close to the minister so we'll be seeing the game from the greatest seats here" he pressed on trying to rattle us. "That's the Bulgarian Minister with them there. The man doesn't even speak English but at least he's a pureblood."

I thought to myself just how sad it was that the idiot was just so desperate to show up people that he supposedly thought beneath him. Looking over I noticed that Minister Fudge looked rather idiotic and was trying to use sign language to communicate with his less-than impressed looking Bulgarian counterpart. Lucius looking every bit the preening peacock he usually did and was standing next to a rather attractive older woman I figured must be his wife.

'I guess if one lacks a personally, money is a passable substitute in some circles' I thought to myself

Cutting off Ron's attempt to tell off the blond ponce I spoke quietly "I must say I'm happy for your father that he is so open with his sexuality."

"What?" Draco asked in confusion and disgust, causing the twin's ears to perk up

"Well you're always talking about how close he is with Minster Fudge and now he's being invited out to very important events by him. Not to mention the clothes and the hair." I spoke softly and tried my best to keep a straight face as Malfoy's own slowly turned beet red "I do wonder though, does your mother know?"

"MY FATHER'S NOT GAY" Malfoy screamed like an enraged castrato before turning bone white in horror at what he's just done

Everyone within earshot had turned to look at him. While Mrs. Weasley looked disapproving, Mr Weasley's face bore no expression at all though I suspected he was trying to hold back amusement as he watched the elder Malfoy's displeasure. The man himself looked furiously at his son and I before coming over and dragging him away. Mrs Malfoy just looked irritated while Minister Fudge looked embarrassed. Given the amusement on his face, the Bulgarian minister's inability to speak English appeared to have been exaggerated just a touch. Finally the younger Weasleys and I burst out laughing at the spectacle. The twins slapped me on the back and Ron tried through his laughter to talk about just how scared the younger Malfoy had looked. Ginny seemed to take even more pleasure in Lucius' discomfort than Draco's. Even Hermione couldn't keep a slight grin off her face though it didn't stop her from berating me slightly.

"Honestly Harry you shouldn't provoke him" she said without conviction

"I know but if the douche is going to antagonize us for no reason I may as well get him to make a fool of himself" I replied "It's not hard"

The elder Weasleys seemed not to know just what had truly just happened and if they had any idea, they didn't voice an opinion. We took our seats and it wasn't long before the game was under way. The Irish display was impressive and got me truly excited for the game but it was the Bulgarian display that was most interesting. I felt an odd pressure in my forehead and for a moment wondered if my scar was acting up, but the arousal that followed was unlike anything it had caused and I realized it was my occlumency shields. A group of impossibly beautiful women flew out on brooms to accompany the Bulgarian's opening display. Focusing my occlumency shields I managed to keep any further influence out but the other men around me weren't so strong. Every man in the stadium looked utterly enamoured with the women, as if no other thought could enter their minds. Ron needed to be restrained by Hermione and Mrs. Weasley as he tried to go out to meet them.

Turning to Ginny, who sat to my right, I asked "What are they"

"Veela" she replied with a scowl "Beautiful humanoid women whose 'allure' can drive just about any man mad with desire. I'm honestly surprised you aren't just as slack-jawed and stupid as these geniuses"

She gestured to the twins, seated on the other side of me, who looked like just about every other man here "Don't tell me you play for the other team?"

The tone of her question was playful but I could sense that she wanted an answer. Deciding to play myself I replied "Not at all but how can any of them compare to the divine beauty of the girl next to me?"

The famous Weasley blush overtook her and I read her lips rather than heard her mutter for me to shut up. With that the display ended and the men returned to normal. The game started in earnest and I got to see for the first time just how amateurish the school games were. Though I was proud of my own skills I paled next to players I watched before me. The match was exhilarating with each player obviously at the top of their game. For the next few hours they went back and forth trading goals and though Bulgaria was good, they couldn't quite match the Irish. Seeing no way for recovery, Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker ended the match by capturing the snitch. Though the better seeker, he wasn't enough to save his team and in the end the Irish won 170-160.

"That was amazing" Ron exclaimed as we were leaving "Did you see the way Krum caught the snitch? He's incredible."

His raving continued the entire way back to the tent, but we were all still excited so we really didn't think anything of it. The rest of Weasley's didn't mind Ron, Hermione, Ginny and I going back on our own. The sight that greeted us however wasn't what we were expecting. The entire area was in Chaos and fires seemed to have broken out everywhere. Hearing nearby screams I took off in the direction of them, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny at my back.

"_Morsmordre_" I heard as I arrived

I was greeted by the sight of three men in what I recognized from old pictures to be Death Eater robes. At their feet were four terrified muggles but the most terrible sight was the sight in the sky above them. The old newspapers I had looked over this summer had been a source of some information on the group and though Wizarding journalism was usually even worse than muggle journalism, they hadn't gotten this wrong. The Dark Mark in the sky was unmistakable in Voldemort's usual lack of subtlety. They three hadn't yet spotted us but as I moved to tell my friends to run so I could take the bastards on, a tree that had caught fire fell behind us. On all sides but our path to the Death Eaters now we were surrounded by fire.

"Shit" Ron spat realizing fully our predicament

Weighing our limited options I looked around. If we attempted to put out the fires and make our escape, it could tip off the death eaters to our location. I was confident that I could hold them off for a time but had no way of knowing who among us could get hurt, to say nothing of the threatened muggles. Finally, with a scowl I made my decision.

"On my mark I want you to run to the muggles and get them to run around the perimeter toward ministry officials back there." I whispered firmly "They may not care for muggles but they won't kill them."

"What about you?" Ginny asked beating the other two to the punch

"I'll blanket the area with spells and move in the other direction" I replied "if we're lucky then they'll be distracted long enough for you and the muggles to escape while I lead them on a chase the other way"

"You'll get yourself..."

"We're not allowed..." Ron and Hermione spoke in unison but I cut them off

"We don't have time to argue" I hissed "If we just stand here we could all get killed now do it"

With that I took a breath and steadied myself before moving "Look sharp now, allons-y"

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><p><strong>AN **Okay so starting with the next chapter I'l be redefining this story as a Harry/Ginny piece. For those who don't particularly like the paring, all I can say is that I will be changing her character as much as if not more than I have Harry. As for Hermione, worry not, I'm not nearly so cruel as to shackle her to Ron

As always reviews are more than welcome


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Harry's POV

Casting rapidly I sent a variety of curses and hexes in the direction of the three Death Eaters. Until the others were out of earshot I didn't want to risk using anything dark or dangerous. The silent stunner I opened with caught them by surprise and immediately downed the first of them. They shielded against the rest however before returning fire with twin killing curses. I dived out of the way and took cover but noticed that the curses had hit a solid stone shield that had been conjured in front of where I had been. With some annoyance I realized that while Ron and Hermione had done as I'd asked and were already getting the muggles out of the way of the fight, Ginny had joined me in the fight. She took the rubble that remained of her shield and threw the pieces at the death eaters before dodging their next curses and taking cover with me behind a still standing tent.

"What are you doing here?" I growled

"Saving your annoyingly noble ass" she growled right back "Now we can argue or we can survive"

"Fine" I said scowling "Summon another stone shield and I'll go on the attack"

We did so and the shield was again destroyed immediately but still gave us some defense. Working as a team we held out well enough against them but were still outmatched. Moving back slowly we eventually started to hear the sounds of people seemingly already in pursuit of something.

"Damn it" one of them yelled and they started to retreat

Curious about just who was coming but figuring it wasn't their reinforcements given their reactions, we pursued the two of them. Continuing to trade spells as they ran, they stopped by their unconscious comrade.

"_Bombarda_" I yelled sending blasting curse them

The taller one deflected it into a nearby tree and yelled "_Avada Kedavra_"

I summoned a stone shield to take the brunt of it and sent the rubble at them, forcing them to dodge

"_Diffindo_" Ginny yelled and got the only hit either of us had managed since my initial stunner, taking off part of the shorter one's foot, eliciting a scream of agony.

The voices coming from behind us got louder and with obvious reluctance the two grabbed the third one and disapparated. Just then a robbed and hooded figure ran up and disapparated as well. He was followed by men in auror's robes, one of whom nearly hit us with a stunner.

"Drop your wands" the lead one yelled, the group of them pointing their wands at us

Before anything could happen though Mr Weasley came on the scene "Stop stop that's my daughter and Harry Potter"

We lowered our wands, certain that danger had passed. Ginny hugged her father and I went to speak with aurors.

"As he said Harry Potter" I said in greeting

"Auror Dawlish" he replied "What happened here"

"My friends and I came upon three people dressed in Death Eater robes attacking four muggles" I replied beginning my tale

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Mr and Mrs Weasley both asked coming up to me

"I sent them along to bring the muggles toward the stadium, figuring that some ministry officials might still be around to protect and obliviate the group" I replied "They ran around that way"

Gesturing in the direction they had left, I watched a pair of aurors take off in pursuit of the missing people.

"I had originally planned to take them on alone but..." I was cut off

"but I sure as hell wasn't going to let you do something that stupid" Ginny finished my sentence hotly, daring me to argue with her

"It wasn't my smartest moment" I agreed "I don't know how things would have gone without you"

I did know how things would have gone though. I'd have called in Dobby and gotten him to move me around the field while I attacked from odd angles and, with luck taken them down. I'd have had the elf's not inconsiderable firepower as well. Still I couldn't argue with Ginny's intentions nor truly with her skill with her wand.

'I'll have to ask about that actually' I thought to myself 'Her skill level is comparable to mine and I'm above average for a fourth year, let alone a third year'

"I took part of one of their feet off" Ginny said pointing to the bloody mess of flesh what must have been a couple toes along with the connecting flesh and bone

"The statute on underage magic will be waved given the circumstances" I told rather than asked the auror. I'd wave the political clout of House Potter if need be.

"Of course" the auror replied without comment. I was glad not to have to endure a fight with the ministry over this.

We still had to endure Mrs. Weasley however, who spent pretty much the rest of the evening chewing us out off and on for how risky our behavior had been. Ron, Hermione and the muggle family had been discovered perfectly fine and the aurors had taken care of the muggles. Ron had been angry with Ginny for joining me in the fight and me for 'allowing' it but he'd let up eventually. Though the day had not gone as planned we all knew it could have been much worse.

Ginny's POV

If anyone had told me a year or two ago that I'd someday be actively avoiding Harry Potter, I'd have told them they were insane. However that was exactly the predicament I found myself in during the few days between the insident with the Death Eaters and the train ride to Hogwarts. The entire thing was tense with Mum and Dad still angry with us for fighting.

"Me more than him of course" I thought irritated

My idiot brothers have been on my case as well for 'taking such a risk.' I suppose I should be happy they've done something other than pity me or treat me like I'm made of glass but treating me like a petulant child isn't much of an improvement.

'Me in danger. What a joke' I thought to myself 'If they only knew what I could have done to those bastards if oh so noble Harry bloody Potter hadn't been there'

Just as my thoughts threatened to turn even darker, the door to the train compartment opened and the object of my desires and current irritation entered.

"Look Harry" I started but he cut me off

"No I just want to say my piece" he sealed the door with a couple spells "I know what it's like to want to internalize everything when something terrible has happened to you"

"You know nothing!" I exclaimed, already in foul mood over my family "I admit that a lot of terrible things have happened to you but you have no idea what it's like to be tormented by someone for months on end by someone who hates you for the simple fact that you exist. To be told day in day out that you are utterly worthless."

In my growing anger with the infuriating boy I pushed out mentally to see why it really was that he was so hell bent on talking to me about this, only to be stopped cold.

"you practice Occlumency?"

"You practice Legilimency?" we asked in unison

"That's why the Veela didn't fully affect you" I said to myself

Harry stood up and closed the blinds to our compartment door window and began to take off his shirt,

'You are a worthless blood-traitor whore my little Ginevra, if I weren't taking your life and putting you to better use, you would live solely to serve your betters on your knees' Tom's old cruel words echoed in my head and I drew my wand in response to the fears and insecurities the bastard imparted in me, only to drop it in shock.

Harry's otherwise lean, muscled chest and abdomen were covered in marks. Aside from the mark made by the basilisk's fang in his shoulder, there were about a dozen scars on him. They appeared to have been made by a series of different wounds ranging from cuts to burns. I approached slowly and brought my hand to his chest, tracing my finger over one of the scars.

"How, who?" I asked, feeling sick at the thought that someone could hurt Harry like this

"My Uncle, mostly" he replied "The burn marks are from a couple time when grease splashed me while I was forced to cook for them and they refused to treat the wound properly"

"I'll kill them" I breathed, my anger returning and then some

"Don't worry" He said with a grim smile "I've threatened them into submission for now and once I've dealt with a couple other things I will take care of them harshly. The point of this is that I may not be able to relate to possession, I can relate to something hating, abusing and tormenting you day in day out for reasons that a child's mind just can't contemplate."

"And I know your mind is secure" I said relaxing "Fine yeah he tormented me endlessly while he was in my head"

Harry sat down and put his shirt back on, motioning for me to continue.

"He told me I was useless that if" I paused for a minute and he put a hand on shoulder to comfort me "if he wasn't going to use me to return to life then I would end up nothing but a whore. He would show me images of what he would do to me if he were alive. He..."

'I can't tell him that, he'll think...' I thought to myself, suddenly shaking

"You don't have to tell me all at once" he spoke warmly and comfortingly

"He showed me images of almost every student in this school save the pureblood Slytherins and what he would do them." I was crying by this point and he had wrapped his arms around me but I couldn't even think of it "I dreamed almost nightly of him killing you"

"He's gone and I swear to you I will kill whatever versions of him are out there" Harry whispered to me

"That's the worst part though" I said "It didn't end after you killed him"

"What?" he asked in surprise

$He left his mark$ I hissed to him in Parseltongue

Harry recoiled in shock and for a moment my heart broke. Looking away I stood to leave when he gently grabbed my arm.

$There's nothing wrong with speaking the language$ he said $and know that you are not alone in having been left with it by him$

"It's not all he left" I said sitting back next to him and resting my head back on his chest to continue my tale "My second year started poorly. I couldn't yet handle the guilt of what had happened and I barely spoke to anyone, but in class that was different. My grades had been poor my first year for obvious reasons but last year everything seemed easy. I'd study and retain everything perfectly. It almost seemed as if I was in a constant state of deja-vu in class"

Realization dawned on Harry's face and his reaction mirrored mine when I'd figured it out. Shock followed by horror and finally contemplation.

"It started with a place" I continued my tale "An institution of sorts that I had never been to. I could envision this place perfectly, including the people in it. The people looked vaguely like muggles so I described it to Hermione, saying that I had just seen a picture of it and was curious, and she said it sounded like an orphanage"

"This was a memory of Voldemort's?" he asked

"Yes" I replied "There's a lot about him you don't know and I'll be happy to fill you in time but for now I have to know, how did you learn Occlumency? I just picked it up from his memories"

"That's a similarly long story" Harry said "But I really need to get back to Ron and Hermione before they form a search party"

"And find you all alone with his innocent little sister?" I asked with a grin

"Something like that" he said and went to leave before turning back "Ginny?"

"Yes"

"Thank you for trusting me with this" he said with a warm smile

"Thank you for listening" I replied feeling better than I had in years

Harry's POV

I returned to my compartment feeling unlike I ever had in my life. My heart was racing and the smile currently plastered on my face just wouldn't leave. I didn't know why I trusted her so much, especially right after she attacked me but, there was just so much that I could relate to her about. There was so much that she alone could relate to me about. That she had Tom's memories was disturbing but, it also presented many possibilities. Voldemort may be a psychotic bastard but he is brilliant as well. After all, if I was to finish him off why not do so with some of his own knowledge. Opening the door I was immediately hit with the obvious question.

"Where did you get to?" Hermione asked

"I ran into Ginny and we got talking" I replied

"You 'talked' with my baby sister for the last twenty minutes?" Ron asked eyes narrowing

"Yeah we just got talking about the other night with the Death eaters and lost track of time" I lied smoothly and watched his posture relax a little

"Ah makes sense" he replied

We chatted for a bit after that before being granted our annual visit from the inbreeders.

"Hello Potter, Weasel Granger" Malfoy said as he opened the door to our compartment "Father tells me big things are coming to Hogwarts this year. You better watch your back."

I just stared at the sneering moron for a moment before replying "Thanks for your concern but I'm afraid I'm just not that into you"

"What are you saying?" Malfoy asked, his face reddening

"I'm saying bugger off ponce" with that I slammed the door in his face and locked it with a quick spell

He banged on the door in irritation shouting his usual catchphrase about what would happen when his father heard about this before being escorted away by an prefect his shouting had bothered.

"Honestly I thought Slytherin was the house of cunning" he chuckled "How those morons got in there is beyond me"

"Is it just me or did Crabbe look angrier than usual?" Hermione asked

"They both looked as trollish as usual" Ron said dismissively

"I noticed that" I replied "I wonder"

If Hermione took note of the tone of my voice or how I just drifted off mid-thought she didn't say anything. In fact she had been very quiet the past couple days, seeming to prefer studying me in silence, keeping an air about her of having a question on her mind she was uncharacteristically unwilling to ask. I had figured the astute girl would notice the changes in me beyond the physical ones but for now, I was willing to wait until she asked something to say anything, and even then only say so much as I was prepared for most people to know.

What struck me at the moment however was the clear hatred on Crabbe's face. He had only ever regarded me with hostility for Malfoy's sake and never anything beyond what Malfoy expressed at a given time. It had occurred to me that Lucius had been at the World Cup before the attack and now I had one more reason to wonder if perhaps Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were as much Lucius' lapdogs as they themselves were Draco's. After all we hadn't discovered just who it was that Ginny had injured.

That thought aside, the rest of the trip passed quietly and I was able to enjoy a peaceful moment, chatting about inconsequential things with my oldest friends. Whatever doubtlessly awaited me this year, for the moment I was able to enjoy myself and forget for a time the many troubles I knew I had to contend with.

* * *

><p><strong>AN **So I concluded that the only way I could move from here was to add Ginny's perspective as well as Harry's. They will be the only POV characters through the rest of it however.

As always Reviews and comments are welcome


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Harry's POV

Entering the great hall, I was struck by just how different it all seemed to me now. Where my first few years here it had been a sole place of solace and wonder, not all that seemed mildly tainted. Dumbledore's interference in my life still weighed heavily on my mind, and as I looked up at the man, seated at the head of staff's table I cursed him for having done this to me as well. Though by no means ruined, Hogwarts just didn't seem as safe or hospitable as it once had. It was admittedly odd to think that all the near-deaths somehow hadn't done that already.

Leading Ron and Hermione to the table, I chose for a change to sit in the far corner of it. With Gryffindor's table being one of the two situated at the ends of the room, sitting at the corner allowed me to keep my back to two walls while observing the room. If Ron or Hermione wondered why I had made the change, neither voiced that question. Ginny sat not far from us and I realized that she had always done so as long as she'd been at the school. Our eyes caught for a moment and she smiled before looking away. At once my pulse quickened and that same pleasant warmth that had spread through my chest after I had talked to her on the train did so again.

'What the hell is this feeling?' I wondered to myself 'It's by no means unwelcome but I've never felt anything truly like it before'

My eyes then caught hold of something far less pleasant. My mother's journals had been enlightening to say the least, and one part that she thankfully hadn't blotted out was her friendship with Snape. She had recognized his feeling for her but hadn't returned them, and after a falling out they had lost touch. I felt a similar pressure on my forehead as I had with the Veela and realized that he was trying to read my mind. Doing as I had planned I immediately focused on the image of my parent's wedding photo I had found among their things. Focusing hard I was able to ensure that this was all he saw without formally shielding myself. As I had hoped he immediately looked away in revulsion. I didn't want him or Dumbles to know I could keep them out of my head just yet. Until I was ready to reveal that, I would have to focus on simply avoiding their gaze and hoping they wouldn't try a full on assault.

"Welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts" Dumbledore said in his usual grandfatherly manner once the sorting ceremony had finished.

"I trust that this will be a productive and fun year for all of you" he paused for a moment, his eye starting to twinkle before continuing "Now, as has become an annual task for me, I welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Alastor Moody"

Everyone clapped to welcome the grizzled man to Hogwarts. I had read a little about the man during the summer as I researched the war. Apparently the man had been a juggernaut for the so-called light, though some suggested that the man's sanity may have waned in recent years.

'So naturally Dumbles brings him along to teach children' I thought to myself and realized just how odd the past few years had been. A man possessed, a bumbling idiot, as much as I adored Professor Lupin, a werewolf, and now a quite possibly unhinged ex-auror.

"I also bring you all some good news and some bad news" Dumbledore continued "The bad news is that the Quidditch tournament this year, is cancelled."

"WHAT?!" several students yelled in unison

I myself was more than a little annoyed but was far more curious as to why the old man would do such a thing. Despite his many, many faults, he did had an apparent fondness for the game going for him.

Once the crowd had quieted a little, he continued "The good news is that this is so that our school can host the Triwizard Tournament"

This caused commotion of a different nature as student's reactions ranged from excitement to confusion.

I myself counted among the confused and so asked "What is that?"

"The Triwizard Tournament is a gathering of three schools, hence the name, for a series of challenges that each school's champion must compete in" Hermione answered helpfully "The tournament itself hasn't be done in centuries, the last time it did, one of the champions died."

"Now the delegations from the other schools will be showing up in a month's time" Dumbledore continued "Until then I suggest that each of you consider carefully before throwing your name into the Goblet, as once the school's champion is chosen, he or she will face terrible danger and be unable to back out"

Sitting down for a moment before appearing to have forgotten something and standing back up Dumbledore added "Oh one last thing, possible competitors for the tournament will be limited to those already seventeen years of age. Now lets dig in and enjoy our meal."

If the old man cared about how many people he had just infuriated he didn't show it. As I ate my fill and listened to Ron and the twins go on about how much they wanted to compete, I found myself entirely uninterested in the affair and simply missing Quidditch. Still, in the back my mind, the most paranoid part of me wondered if might not have a choice in the matter.

After dinner, I walked back to the common room alone to think in peace and was pulled into a corridor by a redheaded blur.

"You owe me" Ginny said, her tone playful

"Oh do I?" I asked in the same tone

"Yes I told you my story and I still don't know how you got to ho...knowledgeable over the summer" she said

I decided not to bother her about the near slip of the tongue and replied "I suppose I should. Not here though"

"Where?" she asked, an eyebrow raised

I contemplated the many reasons I probably shouldn't suggest this and went over a few other possible safe locations to talk before deciding to just tell her anyway

"Well" I started "You are free to say no and I would more than understand if you did but, I sorta renovated the Chamber of Secrets"

"You what?" she hissed

"Prior to talking to you I thought the only other person that could enter it couldn't get past the school's wards even if he got a new body" I said in my defence "I thought it might make a good hidden base"

"I want to see it" She said firmly

"You're sure?" I asked

"Yes I am" she replied just as firmly "I would never have had the nerve to go there myself but, I think I need to see it"

Nodding I thought for a minute before saying "Meet me in the common room after dark"

Ginny's POV

With more than a little apprehension I walked down the stairs to common room. Everyone else was in bed by now and living in so full a house had long ago taught me the necessity of moving quietly. Entering the common room I thought for a minute that I had beaten him here.

$Hey Ginny$ a familiar hiss came from somewhere I couldn't see

$Lose the cloak, that isn't funny$ I hissed back

I was greeted by the disturbing sight of Harry's disembodied head.

$You know about the cloak?$ he asked

$The whole family does$ I replied $Ron isn't exactly known for keeping his mouth shut. I guess you have the map with you to$

"Shit" he muttered in English

$A problem for another time I suppose. Come, get under$ he said

With more than a little delight I got under the cloak and, with him letting me walk in the lead, we made our way to the chamber's entrance. Walking so close to and occasionally bumping against a teenage boy had its effect on him and with a blush I recognized just what brushed against my ass and thigh when I stopped suddenly.

$Having second thoughts?$ he asked, a slight hint of embarrassment in his voice

$No, do you hear something?$ I asked

$I do, but it must be a ghost$ he replied gesturing to the map and lumos spell behind me $The map says that there's no one anywhere near here, Snape's the closest and he's on the third floor$

Cursing my paranoia and figuring it must just be my lingering fear over returning to place of my worst nightmares, I continued on and before long, we were in Myrtle's bathroom.

$Open$ I hissed in Parseltongue before adding $Stairs$

$I really wish I had thought of that the first time$ Harry hissed behind me

$You didn't?$ I asked

$No, Ron and I slid down the entranceway$ he replied

Fighting to stop my laughter at the image I apologized and continued down the stairs. Each step became more difficult than the last and without realizing it, I took Harry's hand. If he noticed he didn't say anything, but after a few more seconds, we arrived, hand-in-hand where the battle for my soul had taken place. Looking up at him I realized once again how foolish my little childhood crush had been. This wasn't the boy I had pined for as a little girl, aided by my mother's insistence that my father read me stories about the "Boy-Who-Lived" every night. That boy existed only in the fever dreams of fools and hack-writers. This boy was kind, generous, and heroic, but had suffered so much in his life and been denied happiness for so long that it was a miracle that he hadn't end up like Tom had been at his age. To go through so much and come out a good person, was the mark of a someone who would become a great man.

Letting go of his hand I approached the centre of the room, noticing just how changed it was. Somehow Harry had managed to clean and repair every inch of the massive chamber, also finding the time to furnish it.

"What did you do with the basilisk?" I asked

"I cut it up and sold it's body parts to the goblins" he replied simply

"Seriously?" I asked disbelieving

"Yeah, it made me a small fortune" He said

"At least it did some good" I said grimly "So we're here, what happened to you this summer?"

Sitting down and beckoning me to do the same, Harry told me his tale. To say it was difficult to believe would be an understatement.

"So to be clear, the house elf you befriended my first year took you to a healer, that healer sent you to the goblins, and after saving the local leader of those goblins, they helped you to free yourself for the most part from your relatives." I summarized

"Yes, I then came here and Dobby and I have been transforming it ever since. Slytherin even put a few different bedrooms in the corridors back there, though those had long ago been blocked off by cave-ins" he replied

"And this ritual Slytherin devised?" I asked intrigued

"That is detailed in his grimoire on the podium over there" he replied

"Harry why are you trusting me with all this?" I asked, my insecurities getting the better of me

"You trusted me with the secret of Tom's memories" Harry replied "At the moment you're the only one I'm completely sure I can trust."

"That is probably for the best" I replied "Hermione and the rest of my family trust Dumbledore implicitly, they are loyal to you but I doubt any of them would think twice about revealing to him anything he asked. He's just that infallible in their eyes"

"That's what I've been worrying about" Harry said "I don't know how I could get them away from Dumbledore's influence without telling them everything, and if I did that I risk all of it getting back to the old man."

"For now I would recommend keeping them in the dark" I said "It took his utter failure to help me the entire year I was suffering under his nose to break my idea that Dumbledore was perfect. Let's just wait for him to slip up and hope it doesn't take as much to convince them as it did me."

"I may not like it but I can't think of anything better" Harry replied

Just then a robbed house elf that could only be Dobby appeared in the middle of the room.

"Harry, I was hoping to find you here" the elf said "Oh who is this?"

"Dobby, Ginny Weasley, Ginny, Dobby" Harry said as introduction

"Hello" Dobby said bowing "Harry, I just got back from the bank, Ragnok needs to talk to you, can you get away?"

"It's late but I suppose I can spare some time" Harry replied before turning to me "Are you okay to be here alone?"

"Yeah" I said nodding "It wasn't quite as scary as I imagined, thank you for bringing me here"

"No problem" he said "Feel free to make use of the resources I have here but don't check anything beyond the black door down there, I still haven't gone through everything we took from Malfoy"

"I still can't believe you did that" I laughed

"I still can't believe that wizards don't consider defending against house elves" he replied laughing with me

With that he and Dobby left and I was alone. I'd exaggerated just how alright I was with being alone here but I knew I needed to confront this place and all that it represented. I took the time to look around and realized that Harry and Dobby really had done a lot of work. There were still some repairs to be done but it looked better than it had when Tom first entered it decades ago.

Harry had distracted me from what I had originally intended to do with the first few days of the year. Tom's memories went up to his sixth year, by which point he had already known about Horcruxes and had already planned out what he was going to do with the first few he planned to make. The diary was destroyed but the rest were likely still whole. There were a number of places he had considered possible hiding places, the nearest being the Room of Requirement here in the school. Still I could take care of that another day and for now, Slytherin's grimoire was infinitely more interesting.

Going through the book, I noticed many things that would be of interest but as with Harry, what really drew my attention was the blood ritual. Slytherin had included diagrams of the runes to be set in the ritual circle as well as specific locations along the circle that they were to be placed. Once the circle was completed on the ground, one sat in the middle, drew energy in through the runes and drank a small sample of the blood. That wouldn't be the most disgusting thing I had ever done. There were also complex calculations for figuring out the dates and times that specific people could do the ritual. As luck would have it, I personally could do the ritual later tonight. Looking over the notes Harry had added I saw how the ritual had worked for him as well as the creatures he had used.

"Giant's blood for increased musculature, Hippogriff's blood for improved eyesight, Sphinx's blood for improved intelligence, Centaur's blood for..." Listing aloud, I paused "Oh my"

Suppressing my grin and blush and laughing about how he clearly forgot just how much he had written here, I looked over the notes from both Harry and Slytherin again before going through he carefully labelled blood samples he had boxed up for potential further use. In the box was a page on which he had written a list of other potential rituals and complex spells that could make use of the blood of various magical creatures.

"Dragon's blood, Fairy's blood, Griffin's blood, Merlin there are dozens of them" I said to myself "I get that he bought these, except for the Basilisk's blood most likely, but who goes out and bottles this?"

Finally I came upon one that interested me "Veela's blood?" I asked aloud

The vainer parts of me had no problem whatsoever with the idea of this but my pride held out. Tom's old comments about my worth didn't help either but still, not entirely trusting of the ritual despite Harry's successes, but curious nonetheless, I figured I would rather play around with my looks than my mind until I was sure that it worked as well he said.

Taking the blood and borrowing Harry's cloak for the moment I left for the room of requirement. The ritual stated that it was best done right before sleeping so that the body could change while one rested and it was getting late regardless. I could simply wait until the proper time in an hour or so, complete the ritual and go to bed.

Harry's POV

"You called?" I said entering Ragnok's office

"Hello Harry, have a seat" Ragnok said, his voice serious "I've a few things to discuss, the first being that I am now quite confident that none of the other goblins in my branch were ever under Dumbledore's influence."

"He only had Bloodclaw working for him?" I asked surprised

"It doesn't even appear that he kept an eye on your financial affairs" Ragnok replied "I would suggest that he merely did what he needed to to ensure that you would be placed with the Dursleys, paying Bloodclaw to take care of it."

"He wears many hats, so I doubt he'd have the time to look over it himself" I said "He just strikes me as a guy who would have a backup plan"

"All I can surmise is that he simply didn't care enough about this aspect of whatever his greater plan is to bother" Ragnok said "The good news is that I can place a new goblin in charge of your account. From here on out, a goblin named Griphook will be maintaining your affairs."

"I've actually met him" I said "I'll need to arrange a meeting"

"The next bit is far less pleasant" Ragnok spoke grimly "I've had some of our magi here that I trust looking into Voldemort."

"Goblins have magi?" I asked "I had no idea"

"Not many humans bother to find out" Ragnok replied "Most goblins have some capability in terms of goblin magic, but there are those who dedicate their entire lives to the study of the arcane"

"What have they found?" I asked interested

"Originally there appeared to be nothing to be found" Ragnok spat "Even we know next to nothing about the man's past since the humans have been so terrified of him for so long that even thinking about investigating him seems to be beyond them"

"Believe me you don't know the half of it" I muttered "He's been presumed dead for over a decade and people still won't even say that idiotic pseudonym he made for himself."

"Precisely" Ragnok said "But what I did get some success with was having them look into how he could have survived his death"

"What did they find?" I asked

"We at Gringotts have the distinct pleasure of dealing with multiple cursed objects through our excavations of old tombs" Ragnok began "We keep a number of curse-breakers throughout the world in to deal with these things. There are however, some objects that we don't allow the curse-breakers to take care of, opting to do so ourselves."

"Such as what?" I asked

"There various ways to cheat death" Ragnok said "All but one of them are of a truly vile nature, the exception being something that you are already familiar with"

"The Philosopher's Stone" I said nodding

"Yes" Ragnok replied "Now in Voldemort's case, given what you've told me of the wraith that you encountered your first year at Hogwarts and what little is known of Voldemorts 'death' my magi believe the most likely answer is that he created horcruxes."

"What's a horcrux?" I asked

"A vessel, prepared by specific ritual to contain part of a being's soul" Ragnok replied "Once the vessel is prepared, the wizard or witch murders an innocent with the vessel on his person, and with his soul fractured by that act, has the piece that has broken off stored within the object."

"That's horrible" I spat in revulsion

"Indeed" Ragnok agreed "Now in the few cases we've come across there was only one vessel created, but in this case we have reason to believe Voldemort made more than one."

"What reason" I asked

"That connection you have to him, something else I'm having looked into by the way, is still active right?" he asked

"It's lessened since I started learning occlumency but I still have the occasional dream that I know isn't just a dream" I replied

"That is why I believe that he created more than one Horcrux" Ragnok said "Because you already destroyed one, one which contained a far younger version of him."

"The diary" I gasped in shock

"According to my magi, the diary that possessed your friend's sister couldn't have been a simple creation of spellwork" Ragnok said "The intelligence was too great from what you've told me to have been any curse, it had to be driven by something sentient"

I buried my head in my hands for a moment before saying "Then his return really is inevitable"

"Yes but not his victory" Ragnok replied "If we can find out more about the man who became the monster we might well be able to find the other horcruxes"

"Why did you say that goblins would deal with them personally" I asked

"Well in our experience, most wizards evil enough to go through with this ritual would, by necessity be utterly egotistic" he replied "as such of the eight such vessels that have been discovered by us in the last three millennia, seven were made from otherwise priceless artefacts. As such the we devised a way to transfer the essence of the person who made it from the object itself into something less valuable, so that it could then be destroyed."

"So that you can then sell the artefacts without fear" I said surprised that I could still grin

"Exactly" the goblin replied with the same expression "However many he made, once they're been found we will be able to destroy them either way, you could do so with the basilisk venom you have, but if they are valuable, we'll take care of it."

"How about this?" I asked as I raised my eyebrow "Whichever of us finds the artefacts, if they are valuable, profits from them, though the goblin magi will take care of the ritual either way. You have a virtual army at your disposal and I have my connection to old snake face."

Ragnok considered it for a moment before replying "Deal"

"Well" I said rising "Is there anything else?"

"One last thing Harry" Ragnok said standing up also "Your ministry is, as you know, run by morons. The state of things has slipped a great deal since the end of the war but you, with your fame and the political clout of your house, may be able to make crucial difference before Voldemort returns."

"What would you suggest?" I asked already having formed a couple such ideas myself

"I would suggest getting to know those in the highest positions of power" Ragnok replied "The minister in particular is about as sharp as a mallet and might be easily manipulated by you into making a few necessary changes."

"I'll think over how to go about it" I said already working on a plan "Thank you again Ragnok"

"Think nothing of it Harry" the goblin replied "If Voldemort were to return and win, both our societies would be destroyed."

I had a lot to think about and several things to plan out this year but for now the most pressing issue I had to deal with was talking to a girl about a psychopath.

* * *

><p><strong>AN **Before anyone comments, I mean the warm sensation in his chest as a descriptor for the feeling of infatuation. Worry not, there is no "chest monster" coming anywhere near my story. Gods, even as a Harry/Ginny fan, that was nauseating writing in HBP.

$$ quotations denotes Parseltongue

As always, reviews and criticism are welcome


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Ginny's POV

I woke in my bed and immediately thought about the ritual. It had gone well enough, though drinking the blood was every bit as disgusting as I'd thought it would be. I had found that I required very little sleep ever since the chamber so even though I went to bed a fair while after everyone else, I was still able to wake before them quite comfortably. Going to the bathroom, I stripped down at looked in the mirror in shock. I was still covered in freckles from head to toe but they were sparser and my skin was otherwise a flawless ivory. My hair was still the same fiery red it had always been but was now far more vibrant than it had been before. My breasts and hips had grown noticeably but given my age I figured this would be a proportional thing as I grew older. Looking down I realized that even my clit had changed, protruding slightly more than it had before.

I could no longer question the effectiveness of the ritual and would have to ask Harry if he had any more sphinx blood.

'Harry' I thought to myself with a grin 'I wonder how he'll react to the changes made'

I wasn't about to dress up or anything, not that I could if I wanted to, but even wearing robes, he would still be able to see some of the changes I had undergone. Showering quickly, I was for once in my life grateful to have grown up poor. If there was one thing my mother was great at it was charms to adjust clothing as kid's grew. I would need new undergarments in time but for now, I could use magic to make due. Dressing, I made my way to the great hall only to be greeted by the sight of Harry, already awake and seated in the corner seat he had used last evening.

Feeling confident, I made my way over to him "Morning Harry."

Harry who had been drinking coffee choked when he saw me and I quickly made my way over to pat him on the back.

"What's wrong?" I asked with a grin

"What happened to you?" he asked still looking me up and down, for what little he could make out under the baggy robes that made up our uniform.

$Veela blood.$ I hissed as I sat down

$You did the ritual?$ he asked

$Yes, I must say I underestimated its potential.$ I said

Harry looked to ensure that we were still alone before calling Dobby to bring me a cup of coffee. As I took a sip he said probably the last thing I expected him to.

$Have you ever heard about something called a horcrux?$

Now it was his turn to pat me on the back as I choked on coffee

$Where did you hear that word?$ I asked when I could breathe

$So he knew about it that young?$ he asked in horror $Ragnok, the goblin lord I mentioned told me that he thought Voldemort had made several and that the diary was one.$

$You told him about the diary?$ I asked not sure whether to be irritated by that or not

$Over the past few months I've told him pretty much everything.$ he replied $Unbeknown to me, he got a couple goblin magi he trusted to look into a few things. That's how he found the information about the horcruxes.$

It was odd discussing this with him in the middle of the great hall but, I figured as long as we could speak Parseltongue to each other, we could talk about this right in front of Dumbledore without fear, though that would still be stupid.

$Yes he wanted to make six of them as a teenager.$ I hissed $In fact there is a chance that one of them could be stored in the school. I was going to try to get you to come with me tonight to deal with it.$

$You have an idea where to find them?$ he asked, his eyes widening

$I know Tom.$ I replied $I've a pretty good idea where he would think to hide things like that, though there is the possibility that the clues to finding them wouldn't all be in his childhood memories.$

$Yeah$ Harry said thinking $It would be kind of ridiculous if all we needed to uncover the weakness of 'most powerful dark lord in a century' was information about his youth.$

$Still we'll have to look and see if it turns anything up.$ I replied

$What are you going to tell everyone else about your new look?$ He asked

$Well I'll tell Hermione that I started wearing makeup, Ron won't notice, the twins won't comment and my only real friend is Luna who will likely know most of it already somehow.$ I said, having thought about that already

$You think that Hermione will buy that?$ Harry pressed $And how could this Luna know anything? That book has been lost for a thousand years.$

$Hermione doesn't know me that well and Luna, well she just always seems to know something about what's going on.$ I replied $I haven't spoken to her since last year but it wouldn't surprise me if she somehow knew about Tom's memories.$

$Is she a seer?$ he asked

$I honestly don't know.$ I laughed $Besides the only changes they can see are the really minor ones.$

I don't know why I was able to be so bold but the reaction made me glad I was. At first it seemed to fly over his head and then as he sat there thinking, presumably about something else, I saw recognition in his eyes and his head darted over to me.

His mouth opened and closed a few times, as he tried to say something. His attempts to avoiding looking down from my eyes as obviously desperate as they were futile

'For what little one can see under robes' I thought before bursting out giggling

He blushed, looking annoyed that I was laughing at him and embarrassed at the same time. Eventually he just changed the subject

"So when do I meet this Luna?" he asked in English, his face losing a little of the red

"I'll have to actually talk to her first." I said "You know, that socializing thing I've heard so much about."

"You have to live your life Gin." He said rubbing his hand down my arm "To hell with Tom."

My heart soared at the nickname and I felt myself leaning into his touch.

"What the hell is going on here?" a voice came behind me, ruining the moment

"I said what the hell?" Ron repeated coming around us to glare "What are you doing with me sister?"

"Ron we were just talking." Harry replied before I could say anything

"Then why was your hand on her?" Ron growled, his face reddening

"Oh bugger off Ron." I hissed standing up "We were talking about the chamber you ass."

I hit his shoulder and stalked off, cursing my brothers timing

"Great going" I heard Harry sarcastic remark as I left. I vaguely heard him call after me, but having had breakfast already, I really didn't have to put up with more of Ron's questions.

Harry's POV

Ron at least had the sense to look embarrassed and hadn't mentioned what he had walked in on again after Ginny left. Of course what he walked in had been innocent so I couldn't imagine what would happen if he saw anything less so. As we walked to our first potions class of the year I pondered this very question.

'Do I really want anything less innocent?' I thought to myself 'I mean she is really pretty, she was before the ritual too. She's smart, passionate, and she can understand everything with Voldemort better than anyone else.'

I grinned at the memory of her joining me in the fight with the Death Eaters, her indignation at the idea of my sending her away while I fought. The irony of how we both held back because of the other's presence wasn't lost on me.

'On the other hand there are her brothers to contend with' I continued, going over the biggest con I could think of in my head 'Ron is my best mate, could I really jeopardize that over wanting to date his sister? Maybe if I go at this slowly, he'll acclimate in time.'

Before I could consider the other five potential problems I would have to deal with, we arrived at potions. Snape was his usual sneering self, standing behind his desk and looking every bit the bat that he always had.

'Severus Snape as Batman, now that would be funny' I thought to myself

Sitting down with my cauldron, I was more confident than I had ever been in the class. I had studied through most of the years material already and for once I was certain that I could do well in the class.

"Your instructions are on the board." Snape said waving his wand to make the instructions appear "You have until the end of class begin."

'Ah the Snape teaching method' I thought to myself as I began

It was an antidote for a particular poison. Harder than what we had done last year but not by much. I immediately got to work following the instructions as I had learned them over the summer. Snape's angry glare was palpable, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of looking up. Instead I simply worked quickly and efficiently to create the potion given. Just as I was nearly finished the assignment, Malfoy, as he often did, tossed some ingredient into my cauldron. I grinned knowing that the charms on it would protect me and, within seconds, the contents of Malfoy's cauldron blew up in his face.

Snape immediately rushed over "Mr Malfoy what happened?"

Malfoy was dazed and his face mildly burned but managed to stutter "P...Potter"

"Potter!" Snape bellowed "50 points from Gryffindor and detention for a month."

"I did nothing." I replied, still working calmly

"Another 10 points for your cheek." he snarled starting to escort Malfoy out of the room

"My cauldron's protection charms vanish any ingredient placed in it by someone other than me with ill intent into the cauldron nearest them." I said unphased "Malfoy did this to himself."

Snape glared at more angrily than I'd ever seen him "Another 50 points and another month for talking back."

"The charms also keep a clear record of everything placed in the cauldron and whether or not they were placed by the one their charmed to." I said sneering right back at him "If you would prefer I could bring that evidence to the deputy headmistress and, for the attempt to cause grievous harm to my person, the DMLE."

Snape turned again, looking me straight in the eye. I let him read my surface thoughts without pause so that he could see that I wasn't bluffing.

The rage on his face only grew as he muttered "detention canceled"

Without looking up from my cauldron or my work I added "And the points?"

Snape paused again and growled "undone"

I could see him shaking slightly in his anger as he escorted Malfoy, now groaning audibly in pain, to the infirmary. Looking around, I saw everyone in the classroom staring at me in shock. Their expressions ranged from glee to rage depending on their house, though I swore I saw a couple happy looks among the Slytherins. Not commenting, I put the finishing touch on the potion and checking to see that the color was in fact what it was supposed to be, placed the labeled sample on Snape's desk. With that I left, figuring I could use the extra few minutes to talk to Professor McGonagall

Ginny's POV

I sat in History of Magic, bored out of my mind as per usual for the class. How Dumbledore thought it a good idea to keep a ghost of man on staff who only ever droned on verbatim from the textbooks was beyond me. True a lot of his decisions made little sense but at least with most one could argue that it could have something to do with a greater plot. Binns just made no sense

"Hello Ginny." Luna said sitting next to me and dragging me out of my irritated contemplation "You've changed, the wrackspurts have cleared from your head and made you Ginny again."

I smiled at my old friend. Once you got used to the way she spoke, her insights into the world around her were often incredible.

"Hey Luna" I responded "Yeah it was a big summer for me."

"And for Harry Potter as well I've seen, he has become quite handsome." she said dream

"Yes I suppose he has." I replied, not quite sure how to take the comment

"You two will make a lovely couple." she said with such certainty I wondered again if she was a seer

"Thank you Luna." I said looking away

"This year will be important for all of us I suspect." she took that dreamy look on again, staring into space "The world is already starting to com apart at the seams."

I looked in the same direction she was, not because I thought I might find out just what was going on in her head but because I feared she was quite correct.

Harry's POV

"I'm telling you Hermione it was amazing." Ron argued

"I was there Ronald, and no it wasn't." Hermione rebutted "Professor Snape despite everything is a teacher. It was inappropriate to challenge him so thoroughly."

I sat at dinner watching their argument idly as I ate. The rest of my classes had gone quite well, and I had gotten the spells in Charms and Transfiguration almost immediately. I was still mulling over just who might be potential allies among the staff and had still come up short.

"Because he's a teacher and is due respect." Hermione said sounding exacerbated, I had tuned out the last couple rounds of their row

"What happened with teachers?" Ginny asked as she sat next to Hermione

"Hang out somewhere else Ginny." Ron snapped

"Don't be rude Ronald." Hermione remanded

"Bugger off Ronnie-kins." Ginny replied to her brother before turning to me "What happened?"

"Malfoy tried to sabotage my potion and it blew up in face, literally." I said with a grin "Snape tried to punish me for his stupidity but I stared him down. The evidence was on my side."

"When has that ever mattered to him?" Ginny asked

"I threatened to involve the DMLE and McGonagall." I replied

"Oh" she said smirking

"It was inappropriate." Hermione huffed "Professor Snape is a teacher here."

After all these years it amazed me how much she still clung to authority. She had improved immensely but she still hadn't lost the old instinct to believe those with power. It was the main reason I didn't trust her not to inform Dumbledore of my change of heart in his regard.

"Hermione you should know how little that means here sometimes." I said and continued before she could rebuttal "Binns can't teach, Trelawney can't teach, and two out of our three DADA teachers have been utterly incompetent among other terrible traits."

"But still" she said with less conviction

Cutting her off I continued "We have some great Professors here but we've also had some dingbats, and willingness to defend oneself is never wrong Hermione, hell it's a trait of Gryffindor himself."

"I suppose" Hermione said relenting

"That reminds me, I spoke to McGonagall earlie.r" I said "I'm switching out of Divination this year and into Rune and Arithmancy."

"What? Why?" Ron asked "Those classes are supposed to be really hard."

"That's the point." I said "I have to prepare for what's coming after me and the best way to do that is to push myself."

"That's a great idea Harry." Hermione said

"Seems like too much work to me." Ron complained "You're turning into Hermione."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked, irritated

Ignoring their inevitable argument, I turned to Ginny

"You want to deal with that thing you mentioned?" I whispered

"Meet me in the chamber." She replied "Bring your cloak."

With that she left and I was treated to the sight of another argument between my two oldest friends. I hadn't truly ever thought of just how often they did this. I wondered if they would even be able to stand each other if they didn't have me in common, or if perhaps this was some odd way to express attraction on their part. I sincerely hoped for their sakes that it wasn't the latter. Either way it was something best left between the two of them unless I wanted to blasted by both.

"Hey guys" I interrupted

"Yes" they answered in unison

"I need to talk to snuffles about something so I'm going to go do that." I lied

"Anything serious?" Hermione asked not noticeably realizing how much Padfoot or I would make fun of the choice of words were he free

"No just catching up." I said "I'll see you two later."

With that I left, noticing vaguely that they did in fact start up where they had stopped in their argument. I went to the common room first to grab my cloak before making my way down to the chamber. Walking down the steps to the bottom, I saw that Ginny wasn't wearing her uniform. Her outfit was still Molly Weasley approved but was understandably tighter around her body.

'Merlin, she's gorgeous' I thought to myself

"Okay so where is this hiding place?"

"Seventh floor" she replied walking over to me "I don't want anyone else finding out about it so wrap the cloak around us and come on."

I did as she said and she led the way. If I was embarrassed before by how often she bumped up against me, it was a more common thing after the ritual. We traveled up the stairs, having to pause occasionally for the magical staircases. It still irked my how annoying those could be. Eventually we reached the area she intended to. Looking around, she left the cloak, walking back and forth in front of a blank wall three times. I was shocked to see a door appear out of nowhere.

$What the hell?$ I hissed

"Welcome to Room of Requirement." she whispered in English

Ginny's POV

We walked in together, and I thought to myself once again just how excited my younger self would have been at the idea of spending so much time with Harry Potter. I had to admit that spending time with him made me feel great but it wasn't the same kind of thing as my foolish, childhood fantasies. Different didn't mean worse though and I knew that prior to Tom's destruction of my innocence I wouldn't have been able to become as much of a force in the world as I was going to be.

"This room, discovered by Tom in his time here will create virtually anything within the laws of magic that one needs if one imagines it while walking back and forth three times in front of that wall." I said

"So you imagined a cluttered mess?" Harry asked

"Contrary to Tom's arrogance, he wasn't the only one to ever find the room." I replied "This is the collection of everything anyone has ever placed here while imagining a hiding place."

Harry looked contemplative for a moment before replying "Did Tom bother to look through the things here?"

"He never found this particular version of the room to my knowledge." I answered "But he could have conceivably found it his final year or returned to the school afterward before he started the war."

"Well only one way to check." Harry said, grabbing his wand with a grin "_Accio_ Horcrux"

I was amazed to see a beautiful diadem floating just beyond Harry's wand.

"I can't believe the idiot didn't protect it from that." I paused for a moment "Actually no that does make sense, he probably believed that no one would ever find the room."

Harry grabbed the diadem and held it in front of him, studying it quietly. After a moment I took it from him and held my wand over it.

"Wait" Harry said "We don't have to destroy it. The Goblins can remove the soul fragment from it and place it in something less valuable. That thing should grab us a profit of some kind."

"Tom knew about that bit of Goblin magic." I replied "It will work but this diadem is more valuable than you know."

I cast my spell on it, feeling for the particular energy signature that it gave off.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked

"This is Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem" I said "Tom conned the Grey Lady into helping him find it while he was here. It's priceless."

"Wow" Harry said in awe

"Do you trust me?" I asked him

He was noticeably taken aback by the question but replied "Of course"

"Than sit down and hold for a minute." I replied

He did so and I cast the same detection charm on him. It came back with a different signature than had the Horcrux and I was thrilled but decided to cast it specifically on the scar on his forehead. That result came back differently than the first and I felt my blood go cold.

"What's wrong?" he asked seeing my fear

I sat down and, feeling more miserable than I had since just after the chamber, placed my head in my hands. I had prayed to whatever could be out there that my suspicion had been wrong.

"Hey" Harry said moving to me wrapping his arm around me "What's wrong?"

I stayed silent for a moment just letting myself sink into his embrace. Somehow it only made it worse.

'I will find a way to fix this' I thought to myself

Tom knew a couple things that, while he wouldn't have thought to put them such a task, had the potential to work. The downside to both was that they both contained a risk of killing him.

"Harry what have you heard of the night he attacked your family?" I asked finally

"A lot why?" he said, holding back for the first time since the train ride

"By the age of sixteen, Tom was already incredibly knowledgeable about soul magic." I replied "Though he knew the risks, he still wanted to create six horcruxes, so that his soul would be in seven parts."

"Seven is an important number." Harry said in acknowledgement

"What he knew but ignored was that cutting one's soul into so many parts had the risk of making it unstable." I responded "In his arrogance and certainty that nothing could ever significantly harm him he dismissed this fact."

"Does this give him some kind of weakness?" Harry asked and I could see a fire behind his eyes as he contemplated something he might use against his nemesis

"Sadly no" I replied "Given your connection to him and what I knew of Horcruxes, I feared that something had happened and it turns out I was right."

He looked serious again when he asked "What is it?"

"When he tried to kill you all those years ago," I began "Whatever saved you forced his spirit from his body and, since I'm guessing that he must have been attempting to make a Horcrux from your or your parent's deaths, succeeded in this attempt."

"But was did he use as the vess..." He stopped and his and flew to his forehead. I hated doing that to him and the fear I saw in his eyes broke my heart.

He rose to his feet and paced for a moment before commenting "It...it's okay. The goblins will remove the fragment and it will all be fine."

"I wish it were that simple" Ginny replied "The goblin ritual is a crude thing really. It is essentially the killing curse, but in a form that removes souls from objects. If used on you there would be a risk"

He cut me off looking terrified "That it would remove mine as well"

I nodded grimly "Harry there is a solution to this. Tom knew a couple things that could potentially do it and I will find a true solution I promise you"

"What are these things?" he asked

"There is a chance that they could kill you in the process" I replied "I couldn't keep this from you but I beg you, don't let yourself worry about this, I have all of Tom's knowledge and I will find a way to fix this"

To my credit, he did look slightly calmed for a moment, before looking like he had just hit a major 'eureka' moment.

"This actually explains so much." he exclaimed. He paused for a second, looking me over before continuing "I do trust you Ginny, but I need an oath before I continue. I need to know that even under duress, this couldn't get to Voldemort."

It was my turn to be taken aback, but gave the magical oath not reveal the secret he was about to give without his permission. He then told me about his parent's letters and his mother's journals. Specifically, he told me about the prophecy they had known about.

"So Tom marked you," I said after a moment "And Dumbledore knew."

"That must be why he placed me with the Dursleys." Harry said moving around the room animatedly "He thinks that I have to die for snakeface to die."

"And placing you with those magic hating wankers was a surefire way to ensure that you didn't become the kind of person that would excel at anything," I said, joining him on his feet "or be able to put up a substantial fight against him."

A sudden thought struck me that hit very close to home and chilled my blood again. Deciding not to voice it just yet, I continued on my prior train of thought.

"Harry you should hold back." I said

"What?" he asked in confusion

"Think about it," I continued "If you suddenly push to the front of your class, you could tip him off that his plan is failing."

"The last thing I want is for him to start interfering in my life." he replied "If I had Sirius free and on my side, he might be able to act in my defense, but I'm still a minor."

"So as I say, hold back in class and just make sure that you learn everything." I said "If there's anything that you're unclear on, we can practice it here."

"That reminds me," he started "How would you like to start training together. I worked up a regimen based on the core magical arts and muggle calisthenics."

'you all sweaty and in muggle workout clothing' I thought to myself 'yes please'

"Sure" I said, suppressing my grin "When though?"

"We both wake up earlier than everyone else now," He replied "So how about we meet up early in the morning in the common room, take care of the physical training then, and then work on spell work and dueling in the late evening."

"What would the physical training include?" I asked

"I was planning to jog around the lake every morning." He replied "Beside that a mix of bodyweight exercises and yoga."

"I'm sure I'll find it interesting," I replied "Though I may not have the clothing necessary."

"We can make due tomorrow," he said "and then if we can get away, I can take you to a muggle area, via Dobby and buy you something usable."

"Harry" I started, my old Weasley trained resistance to gifts kicking in

"They aren't expensive." he said "It would my treat. You've helped me so much already."

"Alright" I said relenting. In the back of my mind I was more than a little excited at the idea. Regardless of just what was involved, I was sure it would be both useful and fun.

* * *

><p><strong>AN** As always reviews are welcome and if you have any thoughts on anything in particular about the story they are welcome too


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Harry's POV

"Keep your guard up" Ginny yelled, throwing another stunner my way

I deflected it, exhausted after the three hours of dueling practice. It was with some pride that I saw she was actually tired as well. Over the last two months we had sparred hundreds of times and she had usually taken me down before I could put up much of a fight. I was improving however and was actually able to match her move for move for a time now. Within moments however, I was once more knocked on my ass and stunned.

Reviving me, Ginny handed me my wand "You're improving"

"I know" I said rising "I'll match you yet"

"Keep in mind that Tom will be far more dangerous than me" She said seriously "I've only his first sixteen years of knowledge"

"You wanna grab dinner?" I asked

"Yeah, I should grab a shower first though" she replied

"Use the one Dobby installed down here" I said "I'll go upstairs to shower"

"No you use it" she said "I need to grab something from my trunk anyway"

I watched her go upstairs, trying my hardest not to imagine her bathing. It had been a couple months and rather than having gained ways that that I could get Ron to not flip out over my dating his sister, I had slowly lost reasons to care. I had become more and more irritated with my oldest friend in the last few weeks. Every time Ginny came over while we were eating or sitting in the common room, he would tell her off, his perpetual laziness had become grating, and he was constantly rude to Hermione. Things that normally hadn't bothered me were starting to piss me off beyond belief and I had to wonder if I had simply grown up or if he had worsened for some reason.

Either way, I had decided that I was going to ask Ginny to come with me to the next Hogsmeade trip. There was no real reason not to and so many reasons to just man up. She was beautiful, powerful, intelligent and had become a close friend in the short time I had really known her.

Getting dressed, I ascended the stairs and made my way to dinner. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang's delegations had arrived a few weeks ago and were of minimal note. It surprised me how little the addition of so many people had changed things around the school but it just didn't seem to mean much to anyone. The exception had been Ron whose tongue had fallen out of his head at the sight of a Veela from Beauxbatons and eyes had down the same at the sight of Viktor Krum from Durmstrang. Tonight was Halloween and, aside from just wanting to spend more time with Ginny, the main reason for my wanting to use our common spare before dinner to train was to keep my mind of the date. The significance of the date for me usually made it terrible, and the fact that poor luck befell me annually on it as well didn't help.

Sitting down in what had become my usual spot, I saw that Hermione and Ron were already there.

"Where were you Harry?" Hermione asked "Dumbledore's nearly started the ceremony"

"I checked the library for something" I lied

Ginny showed up just then, sitting a ways down from us and I saw a light go off behind Hermione's eyes as she looked from her to me.

'Crap' I thought to myself, but before she could say anything, Dumbledore started.

"And now, the moment we have all been waiting for" he said theatrically "The three champions will be selected"

Turning to goblet, Dumbledore stood in rapt attention as the fire changed color, and a piece of paper was tossed out of it.

Catching it he read "For Durmstrang, Viktor Krum"

The entire Durmstrang delegation cheered, as did many of the other students

Catching the next piece, he continued "For Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour"

The Veela that had so enchanted Ron stood and left for the same place Viktor had gone

Catching the final piece, Dumbledore concluded "And for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory"

The entire room erupted with clapping and cheering the guy. He was Hufflepuff's seeker and by all accounts, an all around nice bloke. I figured he would represent the school well. I took another sip of my pumpkin juice as Dumbledore spoke again.

"Yes a round of applause for the champions" He started "For though they have made it this far, the true tests are yet to come and in the end only will have the honor of being named Triwizard Champion"

"Dumbledore" Snape gasped uncharacteristically, pointing at the goblet

The old man turned around as the goblet's fire started to change color again. It wasn't as the previous times, as the flame rose and fell erratically. It appeared as if the goblet itself was trying to fight something. Finally a fourth piece of paper was thrown outward, being caught by Dumbledore before it hit the ground.

"Harry Potter" I heard him mumble and I cursed my luck

"Harry Potter" he called more loudly and heard some anger in his voice

Clenching my fist, I took Hermione's prodding and walked forward, looking around so see the surprised and angry faces of my schoolmates. The only one I bothered to settle on was Ginny, who looked worried and angry but not disappointed.

'She believes that I wasn't this stupid' I thought with relief

Stopping by Dumbledore, he pointed me in the direction that the other champions had gone. Instead of going immediately, I turned to the murmuring crowd.

"Sonorous" I cast on myself before speaking "I Harry James Potter, do swear on my magic that I neither placed, nor got any one to place my name in the goblet"

A light flashed at the tip of my wand and I didn't drop dead so I hoped that would help the fools cool off a bit. Finally I passed Dumbledore and went to join the other champions.

"Harry Potter?" Cedric asked as I entered the room "What're you doing here?"

"I wish I knew" I muttered just as we heard a commotion in the hallway

"Zis is outrageous" Madame Maxine, the headmistress of Beauxbatons said "Hogwarts now has an unfair advantage"

"This is your doing Dumbledore" Highmaster Karkaroff hissed "I am prepared to take my delegation back to Durmstrang"

"We both know how impossible that would be Igor" Dumbledore chastised

"How did zis happen anyway?" Maxine asked

"From my cursory scans, it appears someone placed Mr Potter's name in a separate, fourth category on its own" Dumbledore

"The boy is clearly lying" Karkaroff growled "Of course he wants the glory of winning the tournament"

Having had enough of their childish argument I snapped "Did you miss the part where I swore on my magic Death Eater? I'd be happy to demonstrate just how capable I still am in that regard"

Karkaroff looked enraged but Dumbledore intercepted him before he could do anything

I turned my irritation to the old man "Who could have done this to me Professor?"

"I don't yet know" Dumbledore replied

"Zis leetle boy is to compete in za tournament?" the veela asked "Of course he got someone older to place his name in for him, why would it be zere otherwise?"

"Hello luv" I said in my irritation to older girl "Harry Potter, people have been trying to kill me since I was a year old"

"Stop being melodramatic Potter" Snape sneered turning to Dumbledore "The brat has sought attention from the moment he arrived, just like his..."

Moody cut him off before I could "How strange that the two 'former' Death Eaters think the same thing. I for one am with Potter, this would be a perfect opportunity to have him killed"

"What are you implying Mad-Eye?" Snape sneered

"Enough" Dumbledore bellowed "Fighting over this is pointless. Alastor, will you look into this for me?"

"Of course Albus" Moody replied "I'll start investigating the goblet itself immediately"

"Is there anyway out of this?" I asked, pretty much already knowing the answer

"I'm afraid not my boy" Dumbledore replied sadly, and I found myself honestly believing that he wasn't responsible for this particular problem "The magic of the goblet forms a magical contract with anyone whose name is selected"

'Of course' I thought to myself bitterly

"Now for all four of you, you will be exempt from exams, as your time will be focused on the tasks" Dumbledore said "Know that these tasks are not going to for the faint of heart, and the danger will be quite real"

I tuned out the rest save for the fact that we were supposed to do this without official help from instructors. Dumbledore promised to acquire an additional copy of the tournament rules for me and I left for the Gryffindor common room.

Ginny's POV

'When I find out who did this I am going to kill them' I thought to myself as I paced back and forth in front of my bed in my dorm.

Everyone was still scattered around the school talking about what they had just witnessed, and while Harry's effort to show his innocence in the matter had helped some to realize that he had nothing to do with it, it wasn't a universal acknowledgement. Deciding to walk downstairs and see just what kind of stupidity was brewing, I walked in just as Harry did from the external entrance and came upon Ron and Hermione already arguing about the goblet. I disillusioned myself and watched from the shadows.

"You could have told me!" Ron yelled angrily the moment he saw Harry "I thought we were friends"

"You don't really think that I wanted this do you?" Harry asked, clearly at the end of his patience

"Of course Harry Potter has to always get everything" Ron growled "All the money, all the fame, and you couldn't even help me put my own name in for this?"

"Are you serious?" Harry asked indignantly "Do you really know me so little"

"Don't give me the victim routine" Ron spat bitterly "You could have everything and you couldn't even leave this to me. I'm done"

With that the prat stormed off and I had to hold myself back from bat-bogeying him then and there, I was curious however as to how Hermione was going to react.

"I believe you Harry" she said without hesitation "But if I openly side with you Ron won't speak to me and I won't be able to reason with him. I don't want this to ruin our friendships with one another"

"So you want to back away from me for now until you can through to the fool?" Harry asked intuitively

"I just need to know that you believe that I believe you" she said quietly "You do right?"

"I know you Hermione" Harry replied with a ghost of a smile "I know you're smarter than that"

"Thank you" she said before walking away to find my idiot brother

Harry himself sat down in the chair nearest the fireplace and put his head in hands. I felt terrible for him and the position he had been placed in. Undoing my charm, I walked over.

"Hey" I said warmly

His face shot up and he studied me for a moment. It hurt a little that he felt the need to see if I was going to hurt him but I suppose no matter how certain he may be, he still wasn't going to trust without verifying.

"My brother's an idiot" I said sitting in a chair near his

"Not an uncommon trait among the people here" Harry said glumly

"Dobby" I called, and was surprised when the elf appeared

"Yes?" the elf asked

"Could you teleport Harry and I to the chamber?" I asked

With a nod the elf did so and we found ourselves in the unusual comforts of what had become our own little spot.

"Thank you," I said to the elf before turning to Harry "I wasn't actually sure that that would work."

Dobby answered instead "I can sense if a call is coming from Harry or from someone standing close to him. I know that you are his friend."

"Yes I am." I said pleading with Harry to believe me

"I know you are" Harry replied "In fact, while we are at Hogwarts Dobby, I want you to listen to Ginny as if she were me unless I instruct otherwise."

Dobby nodded and Harry continued "Ginny I appreciate you being here for me but I need to blow off some steam before I'll be able to talk. I'm just going to throw spells at our practice dummies."

"Okay" I said "I'll just look through some of the old books here."

He left to take out his frustrations in the training room we had set up and I turned to Dobby

"You can obscure yourself right?" I asked

"Yes." the elf replied simply, disappearing to prove it before revealing himself again

"I want you to go over to the Slytherin common room and see what, if anything, they had to do with what's upset Harry." I said

"What's happened?" Dobby asked

"He's been entered into a tournament against his will that he can't back out of." I said "I doubt any of those wankers are involved but it would still be well worth it to check"

"I'll listen in and see what I can find" with that Dobby vanished and I was alone

Harry's POV

For the better part of an hour I just threw hexes and curses at training dummies. Just as I was feeling in control of some access of my life, something else came about that I had absolutely no say in. The need for control in my life had grown exponentially in the past few months and for all the strides I had made in that regard, it frustrated me to know that I could still be thrown into crap like this without a word on my part. Exiting the training room, I saw Ginny just returning down the steps.

"You left?" I asked

"Yeah," She replied "Dobby brought me some information and I enlisted the help of the twins"

"Anything I should know about?" I asked with growing dread

"It's a surprise" she said with a mysterious grin "I promise you'll like it"

"Would you like to Hogsmeade with me this coming weekend?" I asked without warning

"What?" she asked surprised for the moment "Sure."

"I planned to ask you earlier" I said "But the whole tournament thing threw me off. I don't know what this is between us but I know I want to find out."

She looked up at me, staring me straight in the eye, happiness clear on her face "I would like that."

"You were holding back because of Ron" she said more than asked

"He has nothing to do with this" I said firmly "I was already tired of denying what I wanted for his sake"

"And what do you want?" she asked coyly, challenging me to do something

Not feeling bold enough to do much I took her hand and kissed the top of it, maintaining my gaze into her eyes.

"You" I said, my voice low and rumbling

She blushed prettily and I grinned at my effect on her. After a moment, she changed the subject.

"Have you decided what you're going to do about the tournament?" she asked

"Part of me wants to see if I can find a loophole to get out of it." I said "The other part wants prove to whichever of Voldemort's cronies did this just what I'm capable of"

"So which wins out?" she asked "Reluctance of pride?"

"Reluctance seems moot since I doubt there really is a way out of this" I responded "One benefit of the tournament might just be that Dumbledore shouldn't think much of my grades improving gradually if I'm involved in something that I need to better myself for"

"Hmm" She pondered "Slow progress might not seem out of place. Do you think he's behind this?"

"I actually don't think so" I replied "Granted he is a master of deception and manipulation but he did seem genuinely angry about this. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that lets much happen without his say so"

"It could be an act but either way it's not really relevant" she said thinking "If you are going to win this thing we will need to beef up the training schedule. Have you thought of ways we could do so?"

"I'm going asking Professor Flitwick for help tomorrow" I said

"Really?" she asked

"He doesn't appear as openly or fanatically loyal to Dumbledore as McGonagall nor is he an asshole like Snape" I replied "And Luna thinks it's a good idea, she'd know her head out house better than we do."

I thought back to my first meeting with the unusual girl the week prior.

"_Harry, Luna Lovegood, Luna, Harry Potter" Ginny said as an introduction_

"_Yes I suppose you are Harry Potter" Luna said studying me closely "You seem nicer than the one I've heard and read about, more real too"_

_I took in the dreamy gaze of her silver eyes and wondered if she was quite serious._

"_Yes, hello Luna" I said as greeting "I've heard a lot about you"_

"_I've heard a lot about you too, though I imagine more of the things about me have been true" She replied_

"_So Luna" Ginny started "Harry and I wanted to talk to you about Professor Flitwick"_

"_What about him?" Luna asked_

"_We were wondering if he might be willing to teach Harry some combat magic" Ginny said simply_

"_Because you think we're headed to war" Luna intuited "I doubt he would object"_

"_But what we were really wondering is if he would do so without talking to Professor Dumbledore about it" I pressed_

"_Professor Flitwick values logic and wit most of all" Luna replied "If you made a compelling argument for it, or if he already saw the value in doing so, then I believe he would"_

"_Thank you Luna" Ginny said smiling "Would you like to have lunch with us?"_

"_Sure" Luna replied beaming_

She was an interesting person to say the least. I didn't even get to hear her theories about unconfirmed creatures until later in lunch. Despite her unusual tendencies, she did, as Ginny had said, provide often incredible insights into matters of all kinds.

Ginny paused for a moment, obviously thinking about something before continuing

"How would you feel about including her in our training?" she asked

"I don't know" I said reluctant to bring anyone else it

"Not here, this is our space" she clarified and I found myself loving that she considered the chamber 'ours' "But we could use the Room of Requirement"

"That could work" I said "Speaking of the room, Ragnok got back to me on the Diadem. The ritual worked and he said we can have it back tomorrow. He's still miffed we found one before his goblins"

"That took a while" she commented

"There were apparently other curses on it than just Voldemort's" I replied "The magi will prepare a full report of just what was removed from it, but we know for certain that the Horcrux was"

"I guess Dobby will go get it?" she asked

"Indeed" I replied "So yeah we'll talk to Luna tomorrow and see if she's interested in training with us now and then. Her unique perspective could be quite helpful in figuring out these challenges."

"I really can't tell you just how glad I am that we can spend time together openly" She said smiling

"If your brother wants to be a fool that's his business" I said more hurt than I let on that Ron was being like this "I hope Hermione can get through to him"

"If anyone can she can" She replied "My problem with it is that I don't think anyone can"

"Well we'll deal with that in time" I said "Until then I'm going to get some sleep"

"Good night" she said

I hugged her and enjoyed the feeling of her body against mine, after a moment I murmured "Good night"

Ginny's POV

We had just finished our early morning workout and were getting ready for the day. This would be the first day since the goblet fiasco and I was reluctant to leave Harry to the vultures no doubt waiting for him. I really wanted to see the look on his face when he saw the surprise I had prepared for him too. Fresh from his shower, Harry emerged into the main chamber putting his shirt on. I allowed myself to enjoy the image for a moment before speaking.

"So you remember that thing the twins did last year where Percy's badge would show everyone but him 'big head boy'?" I asked

"Yeah" Harry said cocking an eyebrow

"Well I had Dobby spy on the Slytherins while you were in the training room last night" I continued "I wanted to see if any of them had something to do with this and, while it appears not to be the case as yet, Dobby did bring me some interesting information."

"What did he find?" Harry asked curiously

"Malfoy intended to create badges that would say 'Support Cedric' and 'Potter Stinks' switching when pressed by the wearer" I said

"Sounds like the extent of his wit" Harry said dryly "When is he planning on doing this?"

"Well for some reason he must have had a few badges on hand already that he could charm, and Dobby overheard where he was hiding them" I started "and I went to the twins"

"Okay you have my curiosity" Harry said "What did you do?"

"Oh I'm not giving it away just yet" I said with a grin "But I did want to beg you that no matter what, you show no reaction."

"You don't want to tip him off immediately" Harry intuited

"Exactly" I replied "Come, lets get breakfast"

Walking upstairs and sitting in our spot at the table, we dug into breakfast enjoying a few quiet minutes before the predictable interruption.

"Hello Potter Weaslet" Malfoy drawled already pointing to his badge "What do you think?"

He pressed it and it switched from 'Support Cedric' to 'Malfoy has a tiny cock'

I struggled to keep me face scowling and saw Harry start shaking with the effort it took to keep from laughing.

"So angry you're shaking huh scarhead?" Malfoy laughed "You should know the Slytherins are running a poll on how long you'll last in the tournament. Best odds right now are for ten minutes but I'm betting five"

A few more Slytherins walked up wearing their 'Malfoy has a tiny cock' badges and it became even harder for the two of us to keep from laughing.

The twins walking in didn't help.

"Is that true Malfoy?" George asked

"Isn't it obvious?" Malfoy responded

"If it's true of the son" Fred said

"Would you say that" George continued

"It's true of the father?" Fred concluded

"How does it feel Potter that even your closest friends and allies have turned on you" Malfoy taunted again "I would say like father like son, given what the man had to lower himself to the level of to marry"

"Well Potter I'd wish you luck but you have no hope" With that ponce stalked off, his friends close on his heel

Once they were out of earshot we burst out laughing, none of us able to breathe for what felt like hours but was likely just many seconds. When we finally recovered it was Harry who spoke.

"How the hell did you pull that off?" He asked still chuckling lightly

"Once I learned what Malfoy was up to, I went to the twins here" I whispered "We broke into the potions lab where Malfoy hid them and made the appropriate alterations"

"Been meaning to ask you Gin-Gin" Said Fred

"How did you find out what Malfoy was planning?" said George

"We all have our own innovations when it come to pranks dear brothers" I said winking "I'm not as willing to sell mine"

"Hmm?" Harry asked

"What our dear sister is alluding to" said Fred

"Is an idea we've had" said George

"To open a joke shop." said Fred

"S'probably not possible though." said Fred

"Oh I don't know," said Harry obviously thinking "I could finance such an operation"

"Harry we couldn't take your money" Fred and George said in unison

"I'm not talking about just giving it over" Harry replied "If you two can bring me a full proposal and business plan for what you want to do with the shop, I will finance the operation."

"What would you need?" Fred asked, the two of them both listening seriously

I myself sat there, genuinely surprised by what he was doing.

"A full plan for what your foreseeable expenses will be, what revenue you can reasonably expect," Harry replied "As well as projected growth, into possible other product lines"

"What would we be talking about in terms of financing?" asked George

"and what would you expect in return?" finished Fred

"I would be a silent partner" Harry replied "I don't fancy your mother murdering me and I doubt she'll be a fan of the idea. Aside from that we would split the profits three ways and you would agree to be on board for any special projects I might need created"

He paused for a moment to take a drink before continuing "As for the amount, if I'm forced to compete in this idiotic tournament, then I will damned well win, and the prize will go to you"

The twin's eyes bugged out and they protested

"A thousand galleons" said Fred

"is..." said George

"An investment" Harry cut them off "and one I intend to make back and then some. I may invest more if I believe that there is the projected profits warrant it"

"We'll get to work on that plan then" said Fred

"I promise you'll like what you see" finished George

With that they left us alone and I was able to comment on what had just happened

"If you're looking to score points with me you are definitely on the right track" I said happily

"Oh that's a lovely bonus" Harry replied, cocking an eyebrow "But I'm thinking more about the coming war. The two of them are brilliant and if I can get them to utilize their skills on our behalf it may well help our effort"

"Snuffles could always be of help as well" I replied "Once we figure out how to deal with the rat"

"I still need to figure out just how I'm going to go after him" Harry said suddenly irritated

"We will" I said, running my fingers through his hair

"OI! Ginny" Ron yelled "Get away from that tosser"

"Sod off Ron" I yelled back "If you want to be an idiot, that's your problem"

Hermione looked at Harry, mouthing the word sorry, but before Ron could say anything else Malfoy returned

"Hey Weasley, heard you finally realized the truth about Potter here" he said, tapping and pointing to his badge

Ron and Hermione took one look before both started laughing. Hermione, to her credit was reserved in her amusement, while Ron toppled over, unable to stop.

"How does it feel Potter, to know that the only one able to spend time with you is the desperate little blood-traitor?" Malfoy asked before turning to me "Hey Weaslet, drop the half-blood and I might consider you. There's no way anything with muggle blood could measure up to a proper pure-blood."

Loving his choice of words I replied "Trust me Malfoy, at this very moment you are literally advertising to the world just how poorly you 'measure up' to Harry"

Malfoy just sneered, not realizing just what I had said about and walked away. Of course I had no way of knowing if I was right about that, but I sincerely doubted I was wrong.

"Come Harry" I said taking his hand

"Gladly" He replied following me out of the main hall. Once we were out of sight we both burst out laughing again. All in all it was turning out to be a good day.

Harry's POV

The day's classes had gone as well as usual. I had held back since the first day in almost all of my classes since the first day, not wanting undue attention. Still, they were mostly dead-simple, and I was finding myself quite bored. The only class I refused to hold back in was potions, and that was simply because I couldn't deprive myself of the pleasure of seeing Snape furiously trying to find fault with my work only to find nothing. Now however, I was staying back after class to speak with Professor Flitwick.

"Um, Professor?" I asked "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Certainly Mr Potter" Flitwick replied "What is the problem"

"Well," I started "I wanted to ask you this before the mess with the goblet, but it seems even more important now, I was wondering if you might be willing to tutor me?"

"Harry, the tournament rules are clear" Flitwick started

"I'm not asking for specific help with events" I amended "Voldemort is still out there, I met him possessing Quirrell my first year, and if he returns, he will come after me."

"I see" Flitwick said, shuddering only slightly at the mention of the name "Why not go to Professor Dumbledore, or your head of house for that matter?"

"Professor Dumbledore wants me to live my youth happily but, given the things that happen to me every year I really don't think that that's an option" I replied "He won't budge and Professor McGonagall would back off at a word from him"

"And you think I won't?" Flitwick asked with an eyebrow raised

"Your ravens speak highly of you" I spoke carefully "They claim that your first loyalty is to logic and knowledge, I know I'm correct here"

"You are" he admitted "Were you part of my house, I would probably have offered to teach you already. The question is, what do you hope to learn?"

"I've heard that you are a dueling champion" I replied

"You've heard correctly" Flitwick said, seemingly impressed "I suppose you would want me to keep this from the rest of the staff?"

"If that would put you in too awkward a situation I understand" I said confident that I had won his help already

"No, I respect Albus' reasoning, but in this case, I do believe that his idealism is getting the better of him" Flitwick said "Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, two hours before curfew, that seldom used classroom on the east side of the sixth floor, you know the one?"

"Yes I do" I replied

"Alright then Mr Potter, I'll see you tomorrow evening" he said "don't be late"

Suddenly feeling that I wasn't alone, I drew my wand and walked carefully and quietly to confront whatever was hiding from me.

"Harry" Came a whispering voice from behind me "Your appointment is in half an hour"

I turned to see Dobby hidden in a corner and put away my wand

"Fuck" I spat "I forgot about the minister. Bring me to the chamber?"

He took my arm and teleported me to the chamber to get ready.

Ginny's POV

I sat in the chamber reading when Dobby returned

"Where was Harry off to in such a rush?" I asked

"He's meeting with the Minister" Dobby replied "What are you reading?"

"It's Slytherin's grimoire" I replied "I'm reading through an odd passage"

"What is it?" the elf asked sitting down

"I'll read it '_I once again have reason to doubt my old friends. Helga and Godric insist that allowing these new magic users into our academy will do nothing but help us. They are naive, and only I among them have seen the excessively violent nature of these non-magicals. Allowing their offspring to join us will only undermine our society as we have built it. Were we to simply __seize__ their strangely magical children at birth __from their __parents__, warp their primitive minds to forget that said __children__ existed, and brought them up in our world, this would be fine. I fear for just how the ideas of these violent primitives will effect our people, and I couldn't live with myself if I were responsible for __bringing__devastation__ and war on the world of wizards because I allowed the non-magicals in. Godric dismisses me, __believing__ instead that they will somehow be of help to us. Even Rowena sides with them time to time. Each retreats after our debates to their __chambers__, something that they haven't aided me in creating __despite__ helping each __oth__er.__'_

"What's strange about that?" Dobby asked

"Slytherin's grimoire seems to have been a multi purpose book to him" I replied "There are spells he created, descriptions of rituals he figured out, rants about pure-blood society and the destruction there-of and a few odd journal entries like this."

"But what about it has you perplexed?" Dobby asked

"It's his use of the word chamber" I replied "One of the last few entries talks about him finally creating his 'chamber' and putting it's guard in it. But whenever he speaks of private quarters, he always refers to it as that, or just rooms"

"So chamber meant something different to him?" Dobby asked again

"The only other place in the book that I've read him use the word, was in reference to this very room" I replied "What concerns me is that he talks about, the other founders having their 'chambers'"

"As if the others had their rooms similar to this?" Dobby asked

"That's what I'm thinking" I replied "We found so much in Slytherin's chamber once we excavated the cave-ins, I can't imagine what we would find if the other three had their own such chambers"

"When should we tell Harry?" Dobby asked

"I could just be reading too much into it, but if I'm right and these other chambers exist, I would want to surprise him with them" I replied

"I care about master Harry" Dobby said, referring to Harry as such for the first time since I met him "What do you want from him?"

"I care about him too Dobby" I replied "I can't tell you how grateful I am that you saved him when you did. The thought of him spending a second more under the control of those bastards"

"If I could, I would do terrible things to them" Dobby said "But Harry insists he has his own plan"

"Look" I said "What I'm saying is that I would never hurt him. You don't need to worry about me."

"I'm glad" Dobby replied "I can't imagine him bring more hurt than he has been"

"Would you help me?" I asked "Finding these rooms, if they exist would help him too."

"If he asks me directly I would have to tell him" Dobby replied "Other than that, I can keep quiet if you want to surprise him"

I sat there for a moment wondering about a couple of things. I didn't know which, between the outcome of Harry's first meeting with Fudge or the possibility of finding other ancient knowledge excited me more, but either way, I knew that we were both potentially on our way to something that would help against Voldemort in the long run.

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><p><strong>AN** Aww protective Dobby

Also it's been a month today since I started this. I'd like to thank everyone that has enjoyed and/or commented thus far. As always, reviews are more than welcome


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Harry's POV

"The Minister will see you now" The secretary said, ushering me in

I entered, taking a breath to calm myself. Looking around, I saw the office was much as I had expected. Littered with various, expensive looking bobbles, representations of achievements, and of course a self portrait. It's likeness was sitting at his desk and stood up the moment he saw me.

"Harry my boy" Fudge said in greeting "Please have a seat, I hope that despite all that nonsense with the Goblet of Fire that you are doing well."

"As well as I can sir." I replied

"Now why is it you wanted to meet." he asked, his smile not faltering

"Well sir" I said trying to sound as deceptively small as possible "I recently found out about the responsibilities that I'm to take on when I come of age, being head of the ancient house of Potter and I was hoping to find someone who could help me get to know the inner workings of the Ministry"

"A splendid idea" Fudge said in that same politician-style manner of fake cordialness "But I have to ask, why come to me?"

"Well" I stopped and tried to sound uncertain again "You were of such help to me last year and you seem like such a great leader. I'd understand if you don't have the time of course."

I sincerely doubted that. While I may despise my fame, I knew that it could be of use in cases like this. I could practically see steam coming out of the man's ears as he thought through the ways he could use me to further career.

"I'm sure I could make time for so studious a young man" Fudge said, speaking carefully "I'll arrange for you to be shown around here and introduced to all the other important people. I suspect that there are those you don't want to find out about this."

"What do you mean?" I asked, interested in just where this conversation could go

"Well, I understand that you may look up to the man," Fudge started "but Albus Dumbledore has made many decisions in your regard that I've found questionable."

"Like what Minister?" I asked trying to appear confused and shocked

"Well leaving you with your muggle relatives for instance" Fudge replied "Not that I have anything against muggles of course, but given your importance to our world, I always thought you should have been brought up by a family here. So did many others at the time but, Dumbledore overruled us at the time"

"But I thought the Minister has final say in the Ministry?" I asked, still trying to seem knowledgeable

"I wish sometimes" Fudge replied with a laugh "but a lot of major decisions are settled in the Wizengamot, an upper chamber of which Dumbledore is the Chief Warlock"

"So he controls a lot around here" I asked

"Indeed" Fudge said with barely hidden irritation

'So the two don't get along' I thought to myself 'Could be useful'

"Come to think of it he has made some odd decisions over the years" I said, looking lost in thought "Ignoring the mess last year, neither he nor any of the staff was able to figure out that a basilisk was loose in the school my second year, and he did choose to hide the Philosopher's Stone in the school my first"

"HE WHAT!?" Fudge exploded "And a basilisk?"

"You weren't told?" I asked "I barely stopped an old follower of Voldemort's my first year from stealing the stone and barely stopped the basilisk my second"

"Why in Merlin's name would he let an eleven and twelve year old boy fix these problems instead of dealing with them himself?" Fudge asked bewildered "And the basilisk...that explains the petrifications"

"How was the ministry not briefed on any of this?" I asked

"All I was ever told was that the petrifications were the result of old dark magic that had been loosed in the school and dealt with" Fudge said "And I was never told of anything happening the year prior. I thought of having an investigation done in the school after your second year but Luc...er an ally convinced me it was a moot point"

'I'm sure Lucy-boy did want that matter ignored' I thought to myself

"You mean to tell me that you and the rest of the school have been endangered each year since you arrived?" Fudge asked "Goodness knows what's happened in the years prior"

Though his concern did seem genuine, I still couldn't shake the feeling that he was still just thinking over ways he could use this to his own advantage.

"Things haven't all been bad" I said purposefully weakly

Looking at a clock on the wall, Fudge continued "I have a meeting to get to but, how would like to come here in two days time? I could arrange for you to be introduced to the workings of the Ministry and afterwards, you could go over anything else that you think hasn't been right over at Hogwarts."

"That would be great Minister," I said smiling before pulling a pouch out of the pocket of my robe "and here, I wanted to donate something to your re-election campaign"

"Really?" the Minister said in surprise. Checking the contents he continued "Thank you Mr. Potter"

"Not a problem Minister" I said

"We'll see you in two days time" he said

"Yes Minister" I replied

Ginny's POV

"So Luna" I started "What do you know about Ravenclaw?"

"It's my house" Luna said simply

"No I mean Rowena Ravenclaw, the woman herself" I asked

"She is often credited as the smartest of the four" Luna replied "but I think she was just the most eager to learn. She chose only those who shared that passion as her students and left that legacy"

"Did she leave anything else here?" I asked "Anything physical?"

"Well there the legend of her lost diadem" Luna said "And of course her daughter is here but she isn't really physical. I suppose ghosts seem physical to each other but as I'm not yet one..."

I cut off her tangent "Her daughter's a ghost here?"

"Oh yes, the Gray Lady" Luna replied "Why the questions about her though?"

"I'm doing research on the founders" I said not quite lying "There's so much we don't know about them"

"Yes of course" Luna said smiling "My father believes that Godric Gryffindor was an actual lion that learned to talk and walk upright. It would be fascinating if we could prove him correct"

I just stared for a moment "Right. Do you know where the Gray Lady is most often found?"

"She frequents the area near the library and of course the Ravenclaw common room" Luna said "So have you and Harry finally stopped the nargles from keeping you apart?"

"Yes, we're going to Hogsmeade tomorrow" I replied with a smile "I don't know what he has planned but I am excited"

"I'm happy for you Ginny" Luna said "I wish some the boys would look at me like he looks at you, but most of them just see Loony"

"They're idiots" I said "You're gorgeous Luna"

"I'm glad you finally met the real Harry Potter" She said dreamily "He's so much nicer than the one I used to pretend to be"

I blushed and giggled at the memory of my pretending to marry 'Harry.' "Yeah well, I was very different then, we both were"

"True, though sometimes I do miss kissing the bride" she spoke, staring into space "I overheard some of the older boys saying that they liked seeing girls kiss, though that had nothing to do with a weddings"

I didn't know if she was just screwing with me, but my unusual friend had the strange nature of seeming almost impossibly knowledgeable sometimes and yet hilariously naive and innocent other times.

"Well" I said changing the subject "I'm sure you'll meet a nice boy soon"

"I'm sure I will" She said with the same dreamy sound her voice usually did

I had many things to do in the coming months, but the idea of finding someone to set my friend up with seemed refreshingly normal. It would be nice to do something that had nothing to do with myself or the coming war.

Harry's POV

Returning to castle, I came upon the scene of Neville being confronted by a pair of Slytherins I recognized as Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini.

"What's the matter Longbottom?" Nott taunted, holding Neville's wand above his head "Afraid your shadow's gonna get you?"

"How can a pure-blood be so pathetic?" asked Zabini "You really must be a squib"

I had the element of the surprise and so managed to hit the incompetent pair with a couple quick stunners. Walking out the shadows, I picked up Neville's wand and handed it over to him.

"What happened here?" I asked

"Thanks Harry" Neville replied "I accidentally bumped into them and they, uh, took offence"

"Morons" I spat "Help me stick them to the wall?"

Neville just looked confused as I used magic to strip them down to their underwear and stuck the first one to the wall there. Following my lead, he did the same to the second.

"Aren't you afraid of them going to Snape?" he asked

"And tell him that they were beaten by a random, unknown student?" I asked "They'll be too embarrassed to say anything"

"Why do you let pricks like that push you around?" I asked

"What could I do about it?" he asked back

"There's actually a lot" I replied "Between practising spells and working out you'd be surprised at how quickly you can become someone people won't mess with"

"I guess I could put more effort into practising magic" he replied "but I have no idea where to start with physical work"

"I jog around the lake in the mornings" I shugged "I find it helps me"

"I'll have to give it a shot" Neville replied obviously thinking "Thanks again Harry, and for the record, I don't think you put your name in the goblet"

"Thanks, that means a lot" I said "See you around Neville"

Taking a moment to look at the idiots still pasted to the wall, I continued on to the chamber

Ginny's POV

"Alright" I said "The Gray Lady seems to be my best bet. Problem is she rarely speaks to people outside of Ravenclaw and even they say that she's elusive"

"The elves don't know anything about hidden passages other than those we already know about" Dobby replied "This room was only looked for because of the monster"

"Even Tom only discovered the place by sheer luck" I replied irritated "Other than Helena, I don't know of anyone who could know about Ravenclaw's chamber"

"Ravenclaw's chamber?" Harry asked pulling off his cloak "What did I miss?"

"Dammit" I muttered "I was going surprise you if this turned out to be anything but I think its possible that the other founders all had their own chambers here"

"Why do you think that?" He asked

"Here" I said grabbing the grimoire "This passage uses the word chamber, a word he only ever uses when to describe this room here later on"

"It's not much" Harry said looking over the page

"Which is why I wasn't going to bother you" I replied "Why the cloak by the way"

"I ran into trouble with a couple Slytherin idiots harassing Neville" he replied "I took care of them without issue but it got my guard up"

"Poor guy" Ginny said "I've spoken to him a few times, he seems really nice. He just lacks a backbone"

"He doesn't think I put my name into the goblet which definitely serves as a point in his favour" Harry said

"I honestly can't believe anyone thinks you did" Ginny spat "You swore on your magic in front of everyone"

"People are idiots" harry said simply "Some just think that I created a loophole in my wording of the vow, while most are just unwilling to speak up in my defence either way. Its my own fault really, I haven't really bothered to associate with many people in my time here besides Ron and Hermione"

"Given your upbringing, I'm surprised you managed that" Ginny said with a scowl "Gods I can't think of the Dursleys without wanting to do physical harm to something"

"Believe me I can relate" Harry laughed humorlessly "all in good time"

"So right now my only kinda lead in the Gray Lady" I said "According to Luna, she's Ravenclaw's daughter"

"Really?" Harry asked "Chances are she'd know better than anyone"

"My thoughts exactly" I grumbled "But apparently, she barely speaks to most people"

"This should help" Dobby said teleporting back in.

I hadn't even noticed that he'd left. In his hands were Ravenclaw's diadem, and what looked like a very detailed report from the Gringotts

"Ragnok sends his regards" Dobby said handing Harry the diadem and report

"Ragnok gave me the basics in his letter" Harry said placing the report down "It appears Voldemort placed a variety of curses on the diadem as well as making it his horcrux. Strangely there appear to been some older ones on it also"

"He's confident that everything is gone?" I asked

"He is" Harry replied "If there's one thing the goblins know well, aside from economics, it's cursed objects.

He paused, pondering something "In fact, I think it would good on you"

"Harry I couldn't" I protested but he came over regardless

"Come on" He said "for me?"

"Fine" I grumbled grinning slightly

He placed the diadem on my head and tranfigured piece of paper into a mirror.

"I look ridicul...oh" I paused staggering backward

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, suddenly scared

"It's...nothing wrong" I said dismissively "Go away"

I took a few steps over and say down in the chair there. I had never felt so focused in my life, as if all possible distractions were utterly non-existent. I could ponder whatever I wanted without my mind wandering, or worries creeping up on me. I worked through a spell chain I would have to try out in Harry and my next sparing match, it would almost certainly drop him. Then as quickly as it came, it was gone, and I was staring at Harry, who held the diadem in his hands looking angry.

"There has to be something left in this" he hissed "Dobby, I'm going straight to the bank"

"Harry relax" I said rubbing my hand down his arm "I think that's how the diadem works"

"What?" Harry asked "Gin you looked like a zombie"

"The legends say that the diadem increases the wisdom of the wearer, but that's not it" I explained "Instead, it just blocks out all distraction. My random thoughts, my worries, even the room around me ceased to matter and I was able to just think unimpeded"

"Wow" Harry "That sounds interesting to say the least"

"I could still think about taking the diadem off, but it's not something I would want to use alone for a while" I replied

"Well on a good note," Harry said changing the subject "Finding her mother's long-lost diadem should be a nice icebreaker with the Gray Lady"

"We just have to find her first" I grumbled "Luna says she frequents the area near the library and the Ravenclaw common room"

"We will, though I don't consider it top priority for now" Harry replied "Now I've got to get to my first duelling lesson. I'll see you later"

Harry's POV

"I see you've got the basic form down" Flitwick said watching me get back up "But you present your coming movements too much and your casting is a touch sloppy"

"How are you so fast?" I grumbled mostly to myself

"Years of practice" Flitwick responded with a grin "I can't intimidate or go with brute force so I make sure to move as quickly as possible"

"Shall we go again?" I asked

"Eager, good" Flitwick said "but we'll get to all of that in time. For now I want to know, have you attempted silent casting for anything?"

"No, though I want to start learning" I replied

"It's an invaluable skill" Flitwick said "I didn't use it just now because you are a relative initiate, but typically I use silent casting as much as I am able. Can you tell me the most useful application of it?"

"Well, it keeps your enemy from knowing what's coming" I said

Without warning Flitwick rose his wand to me "_Avada Kedavra_"

Barely thinking, I dove out of the way, only noticing as I hit the ground that there was no green light and my wand had zipped out of my hand.

"Expelliarmus?" I asked dumbfounded

"Sorry to scare you, but I thought it would best illustrate my point" Flitwick said handing my back my wand "You could have shielded that easily had I simply said nothing, but by throwing out the incantation of a spell that cannot be blocked with a simple shield, you can get your opponent to slip up and get them with spells that otherwise would be defended against"

"A useful trick" I said wondering how I could implement it against Ginny

"Indeed" Flitwick said "I would recommend that, alongside your regular work, you try to master using the spells you learned in your first year silently It isn't easy and requires a great deal more concentration than regular casting but it is immensely useful"

"I would say so" I said still thinking

"Now focus Mr Potter, and take your stance" he said and I knew this would be a long session

Ginny's POV

The next day I woke excited, and got through my morning routine as quickly as I could. It was a weekend and I knew he would spend the morning spellcasting in the practice room. Deciding not to join him, I instead went about my day, going over some of the books we hadn't catalogued yet and sorting through dark objects. Between what Harry had stolen from the Malfoys and what was left in the chamber by Slytherin, we still had a lot of odd objects to go over. Most had little more than valuable junk status but we had found a couple things that looked like they could be useful. Eventually, though, the lunch hour came and I had to get ready. Dressing as well as I could, given my wardrobe, I fussed until was satisfied with my appearance and then went to meet Harry. He was already standing in the entranceway so I snuck up behind him and put my hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?" I whispered

He turned around laughing and hugged me "Your hard to mistake, shall we go?"

He took my hand and we went to Hogsmeade. I had snuck out here once last year and hadn't really seen the appeal. Of course with Harry, I could have gone to the worst slum on the planet and found it nice.

We explored for a bit, stopping in Honeydukes where he bought the two of us something sweet, checked out a couple other shops and then finally went to The Three Broomsticks.

"Are you sure wouldn't rather go to Madame Puddifoot's?" he asked with a grin

"Don't you dare try to get me with that girly nonsense" I said poking his shoulder in fun "Just looking at all the frill and pink through the window was nauseating"

He laughed as I shuddered and ordered a couple butterbeers and lunch for us. We sat there in silence for a moment before he broke it.

"I guess we already know all the first date things" he said "So tell me something about you I don't know yet"

I mulled it over before picking something "I've been sneaking out at night to 'borrow' my brother's brooms and practice flying since I was six"

"Really?" he asked impressed

"Yeah, I'm actually really good" I said taking another sip of my drink "What about something I don't know about you?"

"Hmm" he hummed thinking "I accidentally apparated as a child"

"You what?" I sputtered

"Yeah, I was eight and I was running from my cousin and his little gang when I came to a dead end" he said "Next thing I knew, I was on the school roof, utterly confused as to how I got there"

"Harry, kids do a lot of accidental stuff before they come to Hogwarts, but I've never heard of anyone actually apparating before" I said in amazement

"Mmhmm" he hummed again, still obviously considering something

We had just finished our butterbeers and the food, and I was about to ask if he wanted another drink when he finally said what he'd been thinking about.

"Would you like to go flying?" he asked

"Uhh, sure" I replied "But I don't have broom"

He grinned "I know"

Looking around and noticing that no one was looking he quietly called "Dobby"

"Yes Harry" the elf's reply came

"Could you get my broom and meet us by the lake?" he asked

The elf just nodded and disappeared

"Harry what are you planning?" I asked

"Come" was his only reply

He took my hand and we went together to the lake. Waiting there for us was Dobby holding his firebolt.

Getting on it Harry turned to me. "Would you like to see the grounds?"

Any other boy or man standing there with a broom between his legs would have looked like he was overcompensating terribly. With harry though, fuck if it didn't get me hot.

"Sure" I said getting on in front of him

He put his arms around me, gripping the front of the broom and lifted it off the ground. Next thing I knew we were zooming across the lake. I hadn't realized just how fast this broom really was. Gaining significant height above the ground, I was able to see just how magnificent the area surrounding Hogwarts was. The vast, clear lake, the imposing but still darkly beautiful forest, the grassy plains. It occurred to me that Hagrid's job must be a bitch.

"The view is beautiful" I commented

"No argument here" He replied not talking about the landscape, his voice husky, and kissed my cheek

I leaned back into him and he rested his head on my shoulder, allowing me to rest mine on his. We just enjoyed the intimacy of the moment, the beauty of the scenery, and the exhilaration of fast flight. He tried to kiss my cheek again but I moved and he ended up kissing my neck instead. I sighed and leaned my head back on his shoulder, letting him bury his head on mine while still managing to see where he was going. We continued on like that for hours, flying around the grounds, mapping out the lands in ways neither of us had before and teasing each other while enjoying a general closeness that I realized we both craved equally. Between his terrible upbringing and my own experiences I knew as I realized that I even felt this need that he must as well. Having someone that I could just hold and be held by, someone that I could be completely comfortable with and that was equally comfortable with me. He even let me take the reigns after a while and test out the amazing broom for myself. By the time we landed, I was deliriously happy and he appeared to be as well.

"Harry that was amazing" I gushed, hugging him

He leaned in and kissed me. It was brief, tentative and fleeting, but it was wonderful. As we backed away for a moment, staring into each other's eyes, our mutual desire made itself clear and kissed again, this time far less cautiously. Snogging in earnest, he walked me back against a tree and lowered his hands to my waist as we explored each other's mouths hungrily. Our tongues met tentatively, and on whim, I vibrated mine slightly as only a parselmouth could to see what reaction it would earn. He moaned and responded in kind allowing me to enjoy the odd, but by no means unpleasant sensation. Eventually we parted for air.

"Wow" I said grinning from ear to ear

"Yeah wow" he said with a gleeful chuckle

"OI WHAT THE HELL?" came one of the last voices I had hoped to hear

Ron barrelled over and went to punch Harry. Harry and I both dodged moving backward.

"Why the hell are you snogging my sister?" He asked indignantly, his face reddening

"We're seeing each other Ron" Harry replied calmly

"Ronald this isn't what we came here for" Hermione said trying to defuse my irritating brother

"Yeah that was before I saw him making out with my baby sister" Ron snapped "You think your fame can get you everything but I won't let you take advantage of her"

"I'm not taking advantage of her, and even if that was my intention, she wouldn't let me" Harry replied "Ginny can take care of herself and, sorry mate, but she's a hell of a lot more intimidating than you."

"Ginny we're leaving" Ron said going to grab my arm

"No we're bloody not" I yelled "Stop treating me like an infant"

"You don't exactly have the best track record for judgement" Ron said "I won't sit back and let him hurt you like I did with you-know-who"

"How dare you?" Harry and I said in unison

"Stay away from her Potter" Ron said trying to take another swing at Harry

"Stupefy" I shouted, flicking my wand from my sleeve where I kept it into my hand

He fell over unconscious and I turned to Hermione "Could you wait a few minutes before reviving him?"

"What was you said you came here for anyway?" Harry asked, still visibly shocked that I stunned my brother

Hermione sighed "Ron had wanted me to tell you that Seamus told him, that dean..."

Harry cut her off "Short version Hermione"

"Hagrid's looking for you" she said simply

"Thank you" Harry said warmly

"I need to write mum" I said said "If she hears about this from him first there's no telling what she'll do"

"Use Hedwig" Harry said

"Harry I," I paused "Thank you"

I kissed him again, lightly this time and took off for the castle. I vaguely heard him commenting that he was going to go see what the gentle giant wanted.

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><p><strong>AN **Next time: dragons, howlers, and unscrupulous reporters

As always reviews and comments are welcome


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Harry's POV

I made my way to Hagrid's hut. I hadn't thought about my giant friend much in the last few months and I felt guilty that I hadn't thought to visit him. There was a brief time in the summer where I wondered if he might have been involved in Dumbledore's plotting, given that he was the one that collected me and had been given my key, but eventually concluded that this was very unlikely. I knew that Dumbledore had gained the man's loyalty when he gave him a job and purpose in life after Voldemort's cruelty got him expelled, and I would never be able to rely on him if I wanted to go against the old wizard. Despite this, I doubted strongly that he had any knowledge of anything that Dumbledore had done to me, and the more likely explanation was that he was simply as hopelessly loyal to the man as most people I knew.

Arriving at the hut, I noticed that no one was home, but there was a note nailed to the door. Tearing it off I read a short note, obviously written by Hagrid to me, instructing me to make my way to the forest, in the direction of roaring sounds. For many obvious reasons he advised stealth and caution, but promised that it would be worth it, having something to do with the tournament.

"Dobby" I called

"Yes sir" the elf replied, appearing before me

"Could you bring me my cloak?" I asked

"Sure" Dobby replied disappearing and reappearing with the cloak

I took it and beckoned the elf to come with me in case I needed a quick escape from the dangerous inhabitants of the forest. I still shuddered when I thought of the legion of Acromantulas. Making our way toward the sounds, we eventually heard Hagrid's voice and stopped to listen.

"Yer sure you can' tell me what they...I mean..." Hagrid started to ask

"I'm sorry Hagrid" another man replied "They've sworn me to secrecy, and even if they hadn't you couldn't help him"

"I know Charlie" Hagrid replied "I jus' hate that I can' do more for 'im"

"He's one of my brother's best friends" said Charlie "I still can't believe he was allowed to compete"

'That must be Ginny's brother Charlie' I thought to myself

"Didn' have a choice" Hagrid replied shaking his head "Dragons though"

'Dragons?' I thought to myself, a shiver running down my spine

Venturing around the pair in silence, Dobby and I looked out over the hill to see four fully grown dragons being kept controlled by handlers.

"Dragons?" I whispered "Fucking Dragons"

"How are you going to deal with that?" Dobby asked, frightened

"I'll think of something" I said with more confidence than I felt

Turning around, I noticed Charlie returning to the other handlers and snuck around him so as not to be noticed. On the way I saw Madame Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons meeting with Hagrid. Thinking for a moment with mirth that my old friend really couldn't keep a secret to save his life, I then saw the clear look on his face.

"Hagrid you old dog" I whispered with a silent chuckle

Thinking that I would have to find a way to thank him for bringing this information to me in a way that virtually couldn't be found out, I made my way back to the castle. The dragons scared me but as I thought about it, it likely couldn't be quite as bad as I feared. I doubted greatly that I would need to kill one of them for the task, and needed to think about just what else they could need to use a dragon for.

"You really can't get out of this?" Dobby asked

"Seems that way" I sighed "My life huh?"

"Just..." the elf stammered, seemingly unsure of just what he wanted to say

"Hey, I'll find a way" I said reassuringly "I always do"

"True" Dobby said sighing "If you could kill that giant snake, you can do anything"

"Right, now could you teleport me to the chamber?" I asked

He did so and I found myself in the comfortable surroundings of what had become more of a home to me than Privet Drive ever was.

"Gin" I called out wondering if the redhead had returned here

Getting no answer I donned my cloak and checked the owlry and the common room. Finding no trace of her, but seeing that Hedwig was gone, and figuring that she must have gone to bed after sending her letter, I went to bed. I tossed and turned for a while unable to get my mind to relax. While I probably should have been contemplating the problem of the dragons, my mind couldn't get past Ginny's soft lips on mine. The strawberry scent of her shampoo and the light salty taste of her skin I enjoyed when I buried my face in her neck enchanted me. Just holding her in my arms had been amazing and made me feel more alive and secure than I had in my life. She couldn't make my problems disappear, but for a few great hours she had made me forget them. My thoughts turned more r rated and I found myself wondering just what she'd look like if I saw more of her. We were young however and I knew there would be plenty of time for all of that as we got older.

Still a guy could fantasize.

Ginny's POV

I woke with trepidation the next day. My date was still firmly on my mind and I felt guilty that I hadn't waited up to wish Harry good night. I was just exhausted after I got finished sending my letter to my mum. It wasn't how I'd wanted to tell her about my relationship with Harry but my dear brother hadn't left me much choice. I knew she'd be irritated that I hadn't told her in person, ignoring the fact that I couldn't, and that she'd inevitably comment on my being 'too young.' Still she adored Harry and I hoped that would sway her somewhat. What I was really hoping was that she'd take my side on the issue of Ron. The prat had been way out of line yesterday and I knew that unless our mother put him in his place I would have to involve the professors to keep him in check. I really didn't want to have to do that for a family matter. Getting to the table after getting ready for the day, I noticed that Harry was already there.

"Hmm morning" I said sitting down next to him.

He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed me lightly. It was nothing like the heated passionate makeout yesterday, but it was still wonderful.

"Morning" he replied with a grin "How'd sending the letter go?"

"Fine" I said "I just hope that Mum sees reason"

"I'm sure she will" he said "She's usually reasonable"

'Ah bless him' I thought with an inward scowl "Mum is significantly less overbearing when company's over, especially you"

"What do you plan to do if she takes Ron's side on this?" Harry asked

"I don't know" I said honestly "I guess we could sneak around for a while, but I want to be able to be with you openly"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes" he whispered "I know that I don't know her as well as you obviously, but I still can't see her try to keep us apart"

"Well I would be far less confident if it was any other boy than you" I said

"Well than we're both glad it isn't" he smirked

"Damned right" I said kissing him lightly again "By the way what did Hagrid want?"

I do wish he had waited until after I finished sipping my coffee to say "Oh yeah, it turns out the first task is dragons"

After a moment of him patting me on the back I replied "Are they insane?"

"Well I doubt even the ministry would be mad enough to expect seventeen year olds to be able to fight one" he said "I spent much of last night thinking about it and given that Gringotts uses dragons to guard some of the most valuable vaults, my family one included, it seems more likely they would be used to that effect"

"Harry did you see if they had eggs with them?" I asked with dread

"Yes why?" he asked

"Those are nesting mothers" I said, my blood running cold "My brother Charlie said he once saw a nesting mother tear another dragon apart when it came too close"

"Oh yeah that reminds me, your brother is here" he said

"What?" I asked bewildered

"Yeah, he's with the team that brought them here" Harry replied "I was actually hoping you could talk to him"

"Damned right I will" I hissed "I can't believe he didn't even write to me that he was coming"

"In fairness he his busy" Harry tried to defend, but stopped when he saw my glare "I mean he is a total douchebag"

I slapped his shoulder playfully "Only I get to talk about my brothers like that mister. Except Ron"

Speak of the devil, my foolish brother took that moment to appear in the room with a very tired looking Hermione. She didn't look as bad as she did last year when she tried to maintain that idiotic schedule, but she didn't look good. Ron's face scrunched up in anger when he saw Harry and me together but didn't try to make a scene. Instead he smirked and sneered when he saw bright red envelope flying toward us.

I noticed that Hedwig was delivering it and braced myself for the worst. My spirits lifted somewhat when the bird passed up and went to Ron.

Opening up the letter shouted "RONALD WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU ATTACK HARRY AND YOUR SISTER. SHE IS YOUR FAMILY AND HE IS YOUR FRIEND. I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU RIGHT NOW I COULD SCREAM. YOUR FATHER AND I TRUST HARRY IMPLICITLY AND IF YOUR SISTER WANTS TO DATE HIM THEN YOU WILL LEAVE THEM ALONE."

Looking around and seeing the interest that had been risen at the announcement of my relationship, I sarcastically praised my mother on maintaining her usual degree of subtlety.

"IF I FIND OUT YOU HAVE BEEN CAUSING ANY MORE TROUBLE YOU WILL BE COMING HOME."

Turning to me the letter continued "Ginny dear I do wish you had told me about you and Harry in person. I do hope to see the two of you over Christmas. HMM"

That last bit had been directed at Ron who was beet red and glaring murderously at Harry. Following the tirade, the letter tore itself apart and the room erupted into muttered gossiping. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students didn't appear as interested in our lives as our own classmates. I rested my head in my hands, irritated at the attention but thankful that I didn't need to worry about my parents disapproval. Harry rested his hand on my back.

"Come" he said

I followed him, acutely aware that many eyes were on us and left the room. Making our way to the chamber, we sat down.

"I'm sorry about that" I said finally

"I'm the one that should be sorry" Harry replied "My idiotic fame has been an issue since I came here, and now your involved with it too."

He went to get up but I grabbed his arm "You are more than worth a little embarrassment like that, and besides she's my mother not yours"

"She meant well" Harry said

"Yeah and at least she told off Ron" I agreed "That should hold him at bay for a little while"

"Dobby" Harry called, bringing the elf to us

"Yes sir?" Dobby said

"Could you bring us breakfast?" he asked

Dobby nodded and disappeared. After a time he returned with a plate full of lovely food for us and the three of us ate in comfort.

Harry's POV

The looks I'd gotten all day had been odd to the say the least. More than a few girls looked either angry or upset whenever they looked at me. I honestly didn't know why but I found it even more disconcerting that a couple of the boys had the same look. I chalked it up to the goblet and got through the day as well as usual. In potions class, during my last period of the day, things got more unusual. Thankfully I had finished up the day's assignment early when a boy I thought was named Colin something interrupted

"Yes" Snape said glowering at the boy

"Umm, uh that is" the boy stammered elicited a sneer from the professor

"Out with it boy or get out" Snape growled

"I uhh was sent to get Har...Harry Potter" Colin said still stammering

"Mr Potter is in class" Snape said, his voice low and threatening "He can leave when we're done"

"I uh, they insisted" Colin said, his voice squeaking, and handed Snape a paper

Snape looked it over before muttering something about attention seeking under his breath and turning to me "Potter, this says you are to go for something to do with this blasted tournament. You may, but you will receive no leniency for an unfinished assignment."

"It's okay professor" I said sounding overly cheerful and smirking at him "I'm already done"

I took a sample to give him and got the satisfaction I had in every potions class this year of seeing him look over the contents intently, obviously seeking any flaw, only to see frustration take him when he couldn't find any.

"Out" he snarled before sitting back at his desk.

I just grinned at the man's discomfort and left with Colin.

"Did they say what this was about?" I asked

The boy just stared at me in wonder and I once again found myself irritated at my own fame.

"Speak freely with me please" I pressed

"Oh...okay, that is, uh," He started "they uh, didn't say."

I just nodded and continued on in silence, preferring not to hear more of the boy's near inability to speak I my presence.

When we finally arrived I saw to my dismay that among the people gathered were tournament officials, including that one with the fashion sense I thought would have died in 1945, and worse still, members of the press.

"Ahh yes" that man I remembered being named Crouch said "now that the champions have all arrived we can begin. This is the ceremony of the weighing of wands, each champion should present their wand to the expert now"

"Yes mein Fuhrer" I mumbled to myself, drawing my wand

To my comfort, I realized that the expert they had gotten was none other than Ollivander. I hadn't seen the man in three years but he looked much the same as when I first had acquired my wand. After looking over the other three wands and inadvertently insulting Fleur, he came to me.

"Ahh yes" he said quietly "eleven inches, made of Holly and phoenix feather, very supple. You've kept it good condition, though you could do more for maintenance"

"Yes sir" I replied simply retrieving my wand.

Afterwards, we were beset by the press, including one blond woman who tried to corner me into a broom closet.

"Ah yes miss?" I said

"Skeeter, Rita Skeeter" she replied "My readers are all clamouring to know what lies behind the mask of the great Harry Potter. What is it that drove you to enter so dangerous a tournament? Was it perhaps the trauma you experienced so early in life?"

"Listen Ms Skeeter" I said as plainly as possible "Any interview I do will be one arranged in advance and in front of witnesses. If you want something from me, write me and I will consider it"

"Are you sure?" She asked, all nicety in her tone gone "It would be infinitely better for you to have your own words added to this piece"

"I am more than capable of involving lawyers in this if necessary" I replied cooly

Skeeter just smirked "Very well Mr. Potter, don't say I didn't try"

I scowled thinking that I would have to see what information I could find on the woman just in case she really was stupid enough to take me on. Figuring that I could get Ragnok's aid in that endeavour, I went to find Ginny.

Ginny's POV

"She sounds utterly ghastly" I said "I've heard my mother mention her before but never in a negative way. Mind you Mum has never questioned the Daily Prophet"

"That could be problematic" Harry muttered

We walked through the courtyard, enjoying the alone time. For a November day it was unusually warm and we were able to walk quite comfortably together.

"HEY POTTER" came a familiar ponce-ish voice "Did you think you would get away with that?"

"With what tiny- I mean Malfoy" Harry said with a grin

"How did you do that?" Malfoy hissed, his face turning redder by the moment

"Do what?" I asked as innocently as possible

"You know damn well what Weaslet" the blond ponce growled "The badges"

We had heard much to our amusement that Professor Snape had spit out his afternoon tea when he saw the badge Malfoy was wearing later the day that he started wearing it and informed him. Apparently, his reaction had been even funnier than his head of house's but we sadly had missed it. I was surprised that we didn't immediately hear from him.

"I thought those badges were lovely" I said with a grin "I must say Draco, I don't know many boys who would be so willing to share the truth about their short comings with the world"

"Yeah Malfoy" Harry said barely suppressing laughter "Unusually brave of you"

We turned around and walked away, wands at the ready in our sleeves for his inevitable attack, when we heard him shriek.

"Think you can curse a student with their back turned Malfoy?!" Moody yelled at the bouncing ferret floating in front of him. "Just the type of cowardice I would expect from your father's son"

Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy all stood there watching in shock and horror and the half-mad professor dealt out his own form of 'punishment.' Sadly it was interrupted by Professor McGonagall.

"What is going on here?" she asked, obviously disturbed by the scene

"Malfoy" Pansy managed to say

"Professor Moody!" she exclaimed "Is that a student?"

"Technically at the moment, it's a ferret" Moody replied

Upon seeing McGonagall's glare, he quickly undid the transfiguration. Malfoy scrambled away from the professors and over to his friends.

"When...when...when my father hears about..." he tried to say

"I could tell stories of your father that would make you faint you little..." Moody started but McGonagall cut him off

"Alastor!" McGonagall bellowed "We never use transfiguration as a punishment, did Professor Dumbledore not tell you that?"

"Uh..he might have" Moody said

"Come with me" she muttered "As for you lot I expect that whatever happened here, you will go your separate ways, am I clear?"

The Slytherins simply took off instead of answering and Harry and I just nodded. The two professors left, McGonagall still looking like she was going to have a heart attack.

"Do you think she was particularly angry because it was her favourite field of magic that was used?" I asked barely serious

"I think this is the second greatest day of my life" Harry replied with a laugh

I joined him in laughing before asking "Second to what?"

He looked me in the eye, his green eyes darkened with desire , and said "Yesterday"

"Oh really" I asked coyly

"Really" he said cupping my face with his hands and leaning in

Despite all the crap going on in our lives, at least there were still some really good parts.

Harry's POV

"There she is" I said to Ginny

After leaving the incident with the amazing bouncing ferret, we had made our way to the library, as we had the past few nights, to see if we could find the elusive ghost. After so many days of finding nothing, floating in front of us finally, was the famed Gray Lady.

"Hello" Ginny said "Ms Ravenclaw?"

The ghost observed us for a moment before turning to float away.

Just before she disappeared into a wall I called out "We found your mother's diadem"

"What?" The ghost asked, whipping around "You must be lying"

"No I'm not" I said, gathering it from within my robes "See for yourself"

The ghost took one look at it and hissed "You must destroy it. It cannot be allowed to exist, not after what he did to it?"

In shock and surprise Ginny asked "You mean Tom Riddle?"

"Yes that was his name" the ghost said angrily "He was the who defiled it"

"We already undid what he did to it" I explained "How do you know about that?"

"You did?" Ravenclaw's daughter asked

Reaching her ethereal hand out through the diadem she pulled back in shock and exclaimed "It's true, I don't feel any trace of a soul in there, how did you do it?"

"Goblins" Ginny replied simply "How did you know what Tom did?"

"Because I led him to it" she said "I allowed myself to be charmed by the bastard, not knowing what he planned"

"Believe me I can understand that" Ginny said comfortingly

With a sigh, the ghost, who told us her name was Helena, explained just how she had come to possess the diadem in life, and help get it into the hands of Voldemort in death. When she finished her tale she looked relaxed and made it appear to the best of her ability that was standing on the floor.

"I appreciate all that you've done, but why have you sought me out?" she asked

"You heard about the openings of the chamber of secrets?" I asked

"Yes, though I paid little attention to it" she replied

"Well it was actually Riddle that was responsible for that" I said, eliciting another look of anger from the ghost "we took care of it, but while we were exploring below, we came across writings by Salazar Slytherin himself."

The ghost appeared interested and Ginny continued "In these writing we found passages that suggested that he wasn't the only founder who had their own chamber in the school. We were wondering if you knew if your mother did?"

"My mother kept many secrets" Helena said "and she kept all of them closely guarded. I knew many more than she realized but about some hidden chamber, I honestly know nothing. What I can say though is that while I don't know for sure if such a place existed, I know where it would most likely be if it did."

"Where?" I asked

"Here" she replied, pointing to library "My mother spent more time in this library than any other part of the school. If she built some secret chamber for herself, this is where she would have most likely situated it."

"Thank you lady Ravenclaw" I said gratefully

"It is I who should be thanking you" she said floating backward "As for the others, I was never very close to Helga, but Godric was especially fond of the lake."

"One last thing" I said "I would ask that you not tell anyone about the diadem, For reasons related to Riddle, we need to keep it from the world, and especially the headmaster."

"I barely speak to most people here" Helena replied "and I don't think I've spoken to a headmaster or mistress since the twelfth century. It will be no issue."

With that she was gone and I was alone with Ginny.

"Think that's particularly likely?" I asked

"Nothing is impossible" she said "But unless it is exceptionally well hidden, I can't imagine, that Madame Pince or the Ravens themselves haven't explored every inch of the place"

"On the other hand" I retorted "We know how clever and intelligent Rowena Ravenclaw was"

"True" she said "But that's a mystery for another time. For now we should probably get some last minute training in for the day before we have to get to bed."

"Agreed" I said, walking hand-in-hand with her to our chamber

* * *

><p>AN The ferret scene is mostly kept to the source material, minus the reason for Malfoy's being there of course. I'd have changed it around more but it's honestly my favourite scene in the book,

Next time: mysteries, ministry bumbling, and new friendships cemented.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Harry's POV

"I honestly had no idea that matters had gotten so bad at Hogwarts." Fudge said "How did none of my contacts inform me?"

Figuring the question to be rhetorical, I pressed on "What can be done about it though?"

"This year, nothing." Fudge replied "Given Dumbledore's power, it will be impossible to move quickly on this, and with the tournament this year, any move could easily be turned into an international nightmare."

"So next year then?" I asked

"I'm working with people to put something together," Fudge replied "How goes your education regarding the ministry?"

"Quite well." I answered

Fudge had been handing me off to numerous ministry employees over the last couple weeks. We had only gotten to speak a couple times on the matter of Hogwarts, but I hadn't considered it a pressing issue. His many cronies seemed more than happy to show me around, and answer any questions I had. While they all seemed quite genuine, I still got the sneaking feeling from each one that I met, that they simply wanted to see what I could do for their careers.

"I did have one question minister," Harry said "When I met that man, Mr. Scrimgeour, he mentioned that the aurors had seen a rapid decrease in the number of applicants in recent years. Is this true?"

"Yes I'm afraid so." Fudge said dimly "It's the potions requirement you see. There are still plenty of interested people, but they don't have the potions NEWT."

"So that NEWT is what's really decreased in the country." I said "Probably within Severus Snape's tenure as potions master."

Fudge raised an eyebrow, beckoning me to continue.

I had left Snape out of what I had told him thus far. With so much to tell of he dangers at Hogwarts, it had seemed prudent to leave the teaching disasters for afterwards.

"I probably shouldn't say anything, since it's well known that he and I don't get along," I said "but his teaching methods are dreadful."

"How so?" Fudge asked

"I could describe it," I said "but I wish I had a pensieve so you could see for yourself."

Fudge drew his wand and with a flick of it, a cabinet to my right moved, revealing the very thing I had hoped he'd have.

"I'm curious to see this" Fudge said

Drawing the memory of my latest class, I placed the silvery light into the stone basin and watched him enter it. A couple moments later he reemerged, looking flustered.

"He called that teaching?" he asked indignantly

"Indeed" I said retrieving the memory "The only reason that I'm doing well is that I've become so proactive in my studies due to the tournament. Most people don't get really serious about school until their OWL year, by which time they've missed out on four years of instructions."

"And without their OWL they can't get the NEWT." Fudge said burying his face in his hands "How did it get so bad?"

Taking that to be rhetorical as well, I pulled a document out of my robes and continued "I was racking my brain trying to figure out how this could be remedied, until I found this."

"What is it?" he asked, taking the document

"That is part the publicly available annual budget report for the Ministry." I said "Look at the section I highlighted."

"1.2 million Galleons toward the 'Wartime Reparations Fund?'" Fudge asked "What in Merlin's name?"

"My reaction exactly" I said "I had a contact with the goblins look into it, and it turns out that the Wartime Reparation Fund was set up by your predecessor, to compensate those 'falsely' accused of being Death Eaters following the war."

I barely managed to keep the venom or sarcasm out of my voice as I spoke about this. I could have killed someone when I found out about it. I didn't know how many asses Lucius and his fellow assholes had to kiss to push this through, but it was disgusting to say the least.

"The ones who were proven to be under the Imperius Curse." Fudge said to himself

"Those are the ones" I said trying to desperately not to sound angry "I understand that they suffered emotionally under the stress of being charged with murder and other such crimes, but it's been over a decade."

Fudge sat there in contemplation, obviously weighing the pros and cons of what I was suggesting. Subtlety I probed his feeble mind.

'Lucius will be angry about this. I doubt he'll fund that holiday dinner to gather supporters for my reelection. Worse than that he won't urge people to go. Still I'd look brilliant to the public if I undid wasteful spending on this level by Bagnold.' he thought to himself

"It's off topic but one of your secretaries mentioned that over the holidays there will be a formal dinner here?"

That broke Fudge out his thoughts "Ahh, yes, there will be"

"I was actually wondering if I might attend." I said "It would be a great opportunity to meet other important people around these parts. I would support you while I was there of course, and if there's anything that needs to be paid for I would be more than happy to."

It was a risk for certain, as Dumbledore would undoubted find out even if he wasn't there. However it would be following the first task, and I could always chalk it up having been invited after the press from that. Regardless, I couldn't allow an additional 10,000 galleons a year be given to terrorists by our own government. Fudge would have the funding he needed and, much more importantly, my public support for the night, something I was certain he'd find more desirable than relying Lucy-boy.

Sure enough, his eyes lit up at the prospect.

"Of course you may Harry," Fudge said jovially "and there will be some things about it that I've yet to receive donations enough to cover."

"Just send me an estimate and I'll be more than happy to take care of it." I said smiling "Now back to the topic of the reparations, I was thinking that with that money, we could set up a supplementary potions course to be added to the Auror-training program, for those who lack the necessary NEWT."

"Right" Fudge said thinking it over "The money saved from repealing that act could more than cover such a program, and this could attract more people to the career choice."

I went to just agree, but decided to be bold "Actually since we're on the topic of things that money could cover, I do have one other thing about ministry policy that's been bothering me."

"Oh?" Fudge asked

"It's just the muggleborns" I said "They enter our world and, given that they've grown up in the muggle world, they often have trouble adapting to our way of thinking."

"A long time problem for us." Fudge agreed

"I've been wondering for a while if there isn't more that we could do for them." I said "Perhaps reaching out a year earlier than we do now, and setting classes to teach them, not magic, but the ways of our world. I know from my own experience that it can be difficult adapting quickly when those raised by muggles are just thrown into the world without a word."

"Others have suggested such things before," Fudge said, obviously reluctant "However, I'm not sure if we could actually pull off such a thing."

"Well the thing is Minister," I said calmly "Those muggleborn will eventually grow up to become voters and I shudder to think what might happen if one day, they decide en mass to vote for a radical liberal. By integrating them into our world, and helping them learn our customs, we can put a stop to any thoughts of rapid change they might have."

Fudge visibly cringed at the thought "That is a good point."

"We could call it the Muggleborn Education Act," I said "something the press would like I'm sure."

"Yes that could work." Fudge said

"Hey, now that I think about it, all three of these ideas are budgetary in nature." I said "Why not just introduce them as a single omnibus bill? It could save time, and when it all hits the press, you'll appear at once a crusader for government efficiency, and a leader interested in helping all of his constituents, not just the move fortunate."

"Yes that will do wonders for my approval rating" Fudge said happily

"Indeed," I said "and of course, it should go without saying that those on the Wizengamot who benefit directly from the Wartime Reparations Fund, will have to abstain their vote due to the the clear conflict of interest."

"Of course." Fudge said, not realizing how much more likely that made the passage of the other parts "I truly must thank you Harry, you've given me an election winning idea."

"I'm more than happy to help." I said smiling

"You'll be back later in the week?" he asked

"Yes Minister" I said

Ginny's POV

"He actually agreed to that?" I asked in disbelief

"Yes, I wasn't sure I would get my way, having made it up on the spot, but he must have really liked my money and support." Harry replied

"And by having him push it through all at once..." my voice trailed off

"The Death Eaters won't be able to stop it" he said with glee "I love it. Not only do they lose a not-insubstantial bit of revenue, but that money is then funneled directly into training people who will fight them in the coming war, and helping people they despise. I love politics."

"You're actually very good at it." I said laughing "You sure you shouldn't be in Slytherin?"

"The hat wanted me to actually." he replied

"Really?" I asked in surprise "It said the same thing about me, though that may have been Tom's influence already."

"Nonsense, I think you'd have done well there." he said "You're brilliant, cunning, not to mention dead sexy. All traits that house could really use more of."

I blushed at his compliment "I don't know, that blonde witch in your year is pretty attractive."

"If it's witches you like, I'm afraid you might be a touch disappointed when you first see me without my robes." he laughed

"I sincerely doubt that" I said, grinning and winking at him lewdly "Still if you don't want to lose me to 'random girl whose name I don't know,' you might have to catch me."

I laughed and ran toward the lake. Our morning workouts were one of my favorite parts of the day. It was with some surprise that I saw Luna and what appeared to be Neville, already running around the lake. Harry caught up and kissed me.

"As long as I can make your knees weak like that, I doubt I need to worry" he said with a roguish smile

"Confident are we?" I teased

"Very," He said holding me close. He then noticed the pair by the lake, "They're up early."

"Yeah, Luna said she ran into him taking your advice the other day." I said "She must have convinced him to try out our schedule."

"You wanna get them into the rest of our workout routine?" he asked

"Might be a good idea." I said "I'd like to get to know Neville better, and anything we can do to help them train up might well help them later on"

"Agreed" he said

Walking down, we saw Neville stop and hunch over, obviously winded.

"Hey your two" Harry said warmly "How's it going?"

"Quite well" Luna replied in her usual dreamy voice

I noticed that she didn't appear worn out at all and realized that the few times we had run together, that even when we stopped, she hadn't appeared tired in the least. I noticed that Neville's face looked thinner than it had at the beginning of the year and wondered if he had lost weight.

"Hey Harry, Ginny." he said still breathing hard

"You two are up early." I said

"I suggested to Neville that he get an early start on the day." Luna explained

"Yeah," Neville said, finally getting his breath back "It seemed like a good idea."

"How'd you two like to join us after this for the rest of our workout" Harry asked "It's a mix of muggle exercises and practicing magic"

"That sounds like a great idea" Luna said "Do you think so Neville?"

She stepped right up to him as she asked that question and I saw the look on his face at her proximity. Noticing the way she looked at him, I wondered if perhaps there was a mutual interest there. I wanted to set Luna up with someone and Neville seemed like a good enough guy. I'd have to wait and see if they could work.

After we finished our run, we headed back to the school and brought Luna and Neville to the Room of Requirement.

"So you'll presumably have to get around a dragon for some reason?" Neville asked, finishing his push-up set

"Pretty much," Harry replied "Most likely they'll have it guarding something."

"Do you have any idea what you're gonna do?" he asked

"I did have a couple ideas..." Harry said before I cut him off

"You are not out-flying a dragon," I hissed "Even as good as you are on a broom, that plan still has too many ways it could fail."

"It will be my last resort" Harry insisted "Right now, I've got either the direct route, where I just hit it with spells until it falls, the stealthy route where I sneak around it, or something else I'm thinking of"

"You could always just try summoning whatever it is you need to take" Luna suggested

"As low a regard as I hold the ministry fools' intelligence in, I doubt they'd overlook something that obvious." Harry replied "Still I'll keep it in mind as a possibility."

"What else are you thinking?" I asked

"I'll let you know if it pans out." he said with a grin "In the mean time, you want to grab breakfast?"

The four of us got ready for our day and made our way down to the great hall.

Harry's POV

Entering the great hall, I noticed that most people, even some from the other schools were looking in my direction, and then turning to whisper amongst each other. This wasn't something new to me, especially since the nonsense with the tournament, however this seemed different. It took me a moment to realize that most of them were turning to a copy of the Daily Prophet in between their looking at me and talking to each other. Hermione came up to us looking furious.

"Have you read this?!" she asked pushing a copy of the paper at me

Taking it I went to section Hermione was pointing to and read;

The Boy Who Played

All is not well at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Evidence has come to light that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been exhibiting some very dangerous behavior. According to one source, the boy has always kept to himself, ever since he arrived, save for a few close confidants. Now though, in light of the Triwizard Tournament, it appears he has taken a very unusual turn. "He is always alone or with the that Weasley girl" says one source, too scared to identify himself. The general consensus appears to be that ever since he reentered our world, three years ago that he has consistently placed himself in danger. Worse than this, is allegations that he has used this reputation as a thrill seeking bad-boy to intimidate others into giving him what he wants One Draco Malfoy went so far to suggest that "He likes danger so much because it builds him a reputation that he can use to make others do as he says, either through charming them with his face, or making them afraid."

Worse still is his apparent disregard for the witches in his life. Most sources point to one Hermione Granger, a plain but seemingly ambitious young muggleborn girl as the one he was dating for the last couple years. It seems however that after the tournament, he moved on almost immediately to Ginny Weasley, daughter of a minor Ministry official. Rita Skeeter has obtained proof now, that the young Mr. Potter is indeed still seeing the muggleborn, behind Ms. Weasley's back. We wouldn't go so far as to call it an affair, but it almost certainly is likely to cause trouble for everyone involved. We put it to you dear readers to decide for yourself whether Harry Potter, a boy seemingly in love with danger and attention is just a thrill seeker or something darker.

By Rita Skeeter

I face-palmed and handed the paper to Ginny without a word. She read it over and started laughing aloud.

"It isn't funny." Hermione insisted indignantly

"You, Harry, and I involved in some sordid love triangle?" Ginny asked "Its absurd."

"Its embarrassing." Hermione said still irritated

"Trust me Hermione," I said seriously "The bitch will pay for this, and the paper will issue a full retraction."

"You two are taking this way too seriously," Ginny insisted "I mean I'm thirteen and you two are fourteen. Who in their right mind, that knows us, would think for a moment that...oh Merlin no."

I followed her suddenly horrified gaze to see a bright red letter heading our way, carried by Errol, the Weasley family owl.

Opening the letter, Mrs. Weasley's voice yelled "HARRY POTTER HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO MY DAUGHTER!? I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU BETTER BUT..."

She didn't get much further as I blasted the envelope into the closest fireplace where it exploded.

"Potter!" Ron said barreling over "You get away from my sister!"

"Bugger off Ron," Ginny spat "None of that crap is true."

"Ginny don't let him fool you," Ron pleaded "He's a no good, cheating snake."

"Ronald you know nothing in that article is true." Hermione insisted "Harry and I have never dated."

"Of course not, but he's still no good." Ron said "Leave Ginny alone Potter or I'll..."

"You'll what Mr Weasley?" McGonagall asked "You are making a spectacle of yourself. Sit down quietly or be on your way. Ms. Weasley you may wish to write your mother and clear up this mess."

"My thoughts exactly professor," I replied "Thank you."

Harry and I took off, hoping that we could take care of this in our own ways.

Harry's POV

Classes had been irritating today, with morons commenting or just laughing about Skeeter's moronic narrative. I was thankful that she picked this of all days to pull this stunt, as I already had a meeting planned with Ragnok. Enter his office, I saw him seated at his desk.

"Hello Harry," he said happily "I can guess why you're here."

"It wasn't my original reason, but yes," I said "I will need to find a way to silence the bitch. Sadly none of the ones I've thought of yet are legal."

"Killing her may send the wrong message," Ragnok commented "But keep in mind that you do own a substantial part of the Daily Prophet."

"That's one of the things I was thinking about." I said "If I sold that entire block of stock, what would that do to the value?"

"Well, technically, you own 30% of the stock in Prophet LTD, a company which owns the paper and a few other assets" Ragnok waved his hand over the black orb on his desk and mumbled something in Gobbledygook "Right now it trades for just over a Galleon a share. If you sold a third of the stock all at once, it could trigger a selling frenzy."

"That would lower the price right?" I asked

"Oh yes" Ragnok replied "You are actually the greatest shareholder in the company, though you don't control the majority needed to accomplish anything. If enough of them started selling, it could lower the price substantially."

"How substantially?" I asked

"If it got investors scared enough, it could potentially drop as much as halfway." Ragnok said, looking into the orb again "It's actually been on a steady decline for some time now, due to some rather poor investments."

"So if it dropped that far, I could conceivably buy a majority share for the same amount of money I got from the sale right?" I asked

Ragnok's grin was absolutely evil "That sort of thing would get you arrested in the muggle world, however regulations are not as strict or efficient here."

"So you can make that happen?" I asked

"I'll get your account manager to see to it." Ragnok replied "Keep in mind that it may not fall quite that much."

"I'm willing to spend money to see this through" I said "They can screw with me all they like, but if they're going to mess with my friends or my girlfriend, I will destroy them."

"You seem more like a goblin by the day." Ragnok said proudly "Why did you originally schedule this meeting?"

"What can I say you've rubbed off on me." I said grinning "Actually I wanted to know if you'd be willing to introduce me to one your dragons"

Ginny's POV

I paced back and forth in the owlry, reading the letter I had written again and again, to make sure that it conveyed my outrage properly, without going overboard. I couldn't believe my mother was stupid enough believe the fabrications of that charlatan. The darkest parts of me wished Skeeter was here right now so I could slowly kill her. Shaking the impulses I'd inherited from Tom away, I read the letter again just to make sure it was finished.

"Hello Gin-Gin." said Fred

"Writing mum?" asked George

"Fred, George," I said testily in greeting "Yes I am."

"How is that you alone..." Started Fred

"Out of all people..." continued George

"Including our dear parents..." continued Fred

"Can tell us apart?" Finished George

"There are subtle differences," I said vaguely "A girl's gotta have her secrets."

"Just so you know..." started George

"We don't believe a word of that rubbish." finished Fred

"You know I'd expect that from Ron" I said finally able to vent "he's hated my relationship with Harry from the moment it started, but mum likes him. I can't believe she'd turn on us that easily."

"Mum does like Harry" Fred said

"But she believes the word of the Prophet..." Started George

"and Professor Dumbledore above all." finished Fred

I sighed "I just hope Harry has something planned."

"Where is the young man..." said Fred

"Who stole our sister's heart?" asked George

"He went out to meet someon.e" I replied "The whole, him leaving the school thing doesn't leave this room. Clear?"

"Of course" said Fred "You know it really is ridiculous..."

"You are Hermione fighting over Harry..." continued George

"Who comes up with rubbish like that?" asked Fred

"Right," I said with a grin "Clearly Harry and I fighting over Hermione."

At their slack-jawed looks, I continued "It's a joke boys"

Taking Hedwig, I gave her my letter and told her to take it to mum. While I waited for Harry to return, I simply enjoyed the fact that I still had family members who weren't over-reacting idiots.

Harry's POV

By the time I returned from the bank, it was already nightfall. Upon entering the heart of the chamber, I was immediately beset by Ginny.

"What did you and Ragnok talk about?" she asked

"A couple things," I said "For one, I've put in place a plan to deal with our reporter problem, and for second, I think I have a definitive way to deal with the dragon."

I told her my plan to deal with the Prophet first.

"So you could actually just buy the damned paper?" she asked incredulously

"Yes" I replied simply "It's by the far the most relevant paper in the country. If I have under my control, I won't need to worry about another disaster like this happening again"

"And you'll be able to fire Skeeter?" Ginny asked grinning slightly

"More than that, I'll be able to black-ball her," I replied "Ensuring that she never works in Britain again."

"Sounds good to me" Ginny said "How did the bank help you with the dragons though?"

"Oh I spoke to one of their dragons about it." I said looking away

"You what?!" came the expected response

"Yeah, it turns out we can talk to dragons too" I said "They dialect is slightly different from that of snakes, but we understood each other enough to communicate."

"So hopefully you'll be able to reason with it." Ginny said

"That's the hope." I replied "I'm thinking I try to reason with it, summon whatever I'm retrieving, fight it, or out-fly it, in that order."

"Plans a through d," Ginny commented "Not the worst preparation I've ever heard of."

"You wanna check out the library?" I asked

"Sure." Ginny replied

Making our way there under the invisibility cloak, we ensured that the room was in fact empty, before removing it. We had gone here nightly looking for any trace of Ravenclaw's chamber. Thus far we had found absolutely nothing. Well not quite nothing, but nothing that had panned out.

"I'm sure this bust has something to do with it" I said

"We've already tried everything we could think of to the bloody thing" Ginny grumbled "Nothing has worked"

"Hey" I said warmly, placing my hands on her lower back and holding her to me "I know today sucked but we will get through it."

I kissed her, enjoying the feel of her soft lips and her unique taste as she relaxed into me. As much as I enjoyed the moment, inspiration chose that moment to strike.

"Not everything." I said pulling away

"Huh?" Ginny asked, confused

"We haven't tried everything," I said turning to the bust "_Wingardium Leviosa.__"_

The stone bust rose slowly, before stopping just an inch over it's pedestal. I tried, focusing more energy on the task, to get it tor rise further but it wouldn't budge.

"Interesting" I said "It's held to the pedestal by some kind of magic"

"Wait," Ginny said moving quickly "Theres something under it."

Summoning it out, she unfolded what appeared to be a truly ancient piece of parchment.

Squinting at the near illegible ink marks on it, she read aloud "_She who wears the crown, knows where to find the sanctum._"

"What the hell?" I asked putting the bust back

"The crown?" Ginny asked aloud before snapping her fingers "The diadem! Quickly now, Dobby."

"He won't come," I said "I have him watching Skeeter like a hawk."

"You have him spying for you?" Ginny asked laughing

"Dobby can cloak himself well." I said "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't contemplated building a network of spy-elves."

"Where is the diadem?" she asked

"It's in here," I said pointing to my bag before reaching in and retrieving it "Here."

She placed it on her head and took on that same empty look she had the first time. She sat down slowly and looked off in the distance. After a few minutes, she took it off.

"Nothing" she said irritated "I went over what little we knew about the possible chamber, but it didn't help me conclude anything."

"Well we know for certain now that it exists," I said taking back the diadem "and now we know that you can wear this, and remove it yourself."

"We will find it." Ginny said firmly "We just need to figure out what we've overlooked."

"True" I said smiling "Now come, we should go train."

"Yes I never do miss a chance to kick your ass" she laughed

"Hey I'm catching up," I retorted, wrapping the cloak around us.

* * *

><p><strong>AN** Okay, so things are moving along nicely. As always reviews and comments are more than welcome.

Next time: the first task, the sanctum, and political reactions.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Harry's POV

I walked toward the tent with more than a little dread. Despite my preparation, and the progress I had made in the last few months in terms of my power, I was still frightened at the idea of going toe to toe with a nesting dragon. Entering the tent, I saw that the other champions as well as the officials were already there.

"Excellent," said the Hitler-looking Crouch "now that we're all gathered together, we can discuss the details of the first task. The four of you will be charged with retrieving a golden egg from the nest of a dragon."

All of the other champions made some effort to appear surprised, but they weren't particularly great actors. I myself simply maintained my steely gaze, waiting for Crouch to continue.

"Now, each of you will pick one of the four dragons from this bag." Ludo Bagman said, holding out the sack.

Each of the others picked out their own dragon in turn before I was able to draw the final one. With some trepidation, I realized that I had picked what appeared to be the most volatile of the four when I saw them. One of the officials commented that it was the Hungarian Horntail.

The tent was blocked off from hearing what went on with the others, presumably so that we each had to think up our own strategy. Cedric returned first, with significant burn marks but the egg in hand. Fleur returned after that with scorch marks to her skirt, but no obvious injury. Krum returned finally, surprisingly unharmed. It was then my turn and I left to face the beast. I was at once amazed by its immense size and the obvious danger it posed to anyone it deemed a threat.

'Here goes nothing' I thought to myself, hiding momentarily behind a rock

"Sonorus" I cast, allowing myself to be heard while keeping my distance and maintaining my cover

$Hello. Can you understand me?$ I called out

$Who's there?$ the dragon returned, obviously testy $Show yourself!$

I revealed myself from behind the rock with my hands openly in front of me. I moved slowly, and ensured that I could dive back behind my cover if necessary.

$I come peacefully,$ I said $I just want to talk.$

$I had heard of humans that could speak to dragons and serpents,$ the dragon said $if not for curiosity about that ability, I'd have turned you to ashes already. Explain how you can speak to me and why you approach my nest or I will do so regardless.$

$The ability was given to me by a dark and powerful wizard,$ I answered honestly $where he got it, I don't know. As for why I'm here, have you wondered why you and your nest have been moved so far?$

$I have$ the dragon said

$Some of the wizards here moved you and the other dragons here just so that a few young wizards and witches could be forced to get past you for some stupid game.$ I said $They placed a golden egg among your real eggs, and I'm supposed to get it from you.$

The dragon chuckled $You are but a hatchling. How could they hope to have you steal from me?$

$The idea of my failing and dying isn't a risk they're unwilling to take$ I spat

$Who is responsible for this?$ the dragon asked, seemingly offended

$If I tell you, will you give me the fake egg?$ I asked

$Fine$ the dragon replied

$Those dicks set it up$ I said pointing to the headmasters and tournament officials, before turning to point at the handlers $and those ones brought you here.$

The dragon looked through her eggs and picked the false one up between two of its massive talons.

$Yes, this isn't a real egg,$ it said before tossing it over to me $take it hatchling.$

I caught it and bowed $Thank you$

The dragon bowed its head in return $Provided I don't kill them, good luck dealing with those wizards.$

I left with the egg in hand, only then noticing that most people in the stands were staring at me slack-jawed. Mixed in with the applause that followed my completing the task were more than a few boos. I scowled at the thought that some of them were disappointed that I didn't fight a dragon for their amusement.

"Mr Potter!" Madme Pomfrey exclaimed, looking me over "You're unharmed? How did you deal with your dragon?"

"We had a lovely chat." I replied simply, before walking to join the others

We all watched in varying degrees of anticipation as the headmasters and other two judges entered the tent. Bagman was the one who spoke for them.

"Congratulations all of you on making past the first task so successfully." he said "We judges have already deliberated and come to our conclusions on the matter of points."

He paused for dramatic effect before continuing on.

"Mr Diggory," he said "Your strategy was inspired, distracting the dragon before making your move. Though you did get the egg however, you did get harmed though and points were deducted for that. Your final score is 38/50."

Cedric looked relatively happy, though the still pink skin of his face, showed ongoing healing from the wound he received, and I doubted that that wasn't bothering him.

"Ms Delacour," Bagman continued "You showed great use of your own natural talents, charming your dragon to sleep. Again however, as with Mr Diggory, since the dragon woke up and managed to scorch you, points were deducted. Your final score is 37/50."

Fleur looked mildly pleased enough, though again the tender looking, healing skin of her perfect legs suggested that she might me be in some pain.

"Mr Krum," Bagman went on "Your brute force approach worked exceedingly well, and by blinding your dragon, you were able to get your egg without injury. Despite this, the dragon's rampage resulted in the destruction of a couple of it's eggs and points were deducted for that. Your final score is 40/50."

"Finally, Mr Potter" Bagman said, smiling wider than before for some reason "While we were all impressed that you managed to get your dragon to give you your egg, there was some debate on how you managed to do so."

"I asked nicely." I said simply, ignoring the shocked stares from the other champions

"As I said." Dumbledore cut in

"Very well," Bagman continued "As you neither sustained any injury nor damaged anything, your final score is 44/50."

I nodded, not caring particularly about any of this.

"Now, understand that these golden eggs are the key to figuring out the next task." he said "We will tell you the specific time of the second task at a later date."

I left quickly trying to avoid having to talk with anyone.

Ginny's POV

While Harry and the other champions got ready to begin their first task, I went to speak with the brother I was most annoyed with. Not to say that Ron's stupidity or Percy's attitude hadn't bothered me in the last few months, but I honestly couldn't believe that Charlie could be in the school and not even bother visiting any of us. Seeing him standing just off from the other handlers, I made my way over.

"You come all the way to Hogwarts and don't even bother to talk to your favorite sister?" I asked "For shame Charlie."

"Ginny?" Charlie said in surprise "How'd you know I was here? I was going to surprise you all before I left."

"I have my ways," I said smiling "I assume that if the twins knew, you'd know it. I doubt Ron does either."

"I heard about you and Harry Potter." Charlie said, changing the subject

"If you're talking about that stupid article..." I replied before he cut me off

"Mum wrote bill and I both after she first found out about you." he said "That Skeeter article was ridiculous."

"I laughed it off until Mum sent Harry a howler" I said scowling "She actually believed it."

"No she didn't." Charlie said confidently "You know Mum. She can freak out when something pops up that she doesn't agree with or understand, especially when one of us is involved. When she cools down she'll realize the paper was full of shit."

"I guess" I said, feeling a little better "Trust me, she'll apologize once she thinks about it."

I was still amazed by how easily Charlie was able to cut right to the heart of things. Of all my brothers he was usually the one who spoke the least, but when he did it was always something short and meaningful. I noticed then that Cedric Diggory had started his task.

"Is Harry prepared for this?" Charlie asked "I still can't believe they're letting a fourteen year old boy face a nesting dragon."

"Harry's not your average fourteen year old," I replied "I've more faith in him than the others."

"Has anyone figured out how his name was put in the goblet in the first place?" he asked

"When I find who did this, you'll hear about it." I said without taking my eye off the other Hogwarts champion

"Idio.t" I spat "If he had just disillusioned himself, he could have gotten around the dragon while it was distracted by his transfigured dog."

"Dragon's have highly tuned senses, beyond their sight" Charlie pointed out "But that short-snout was quite distracted. Mere invisibility probably would of worked."

"I hate half thought out plans." I commented

Charlie left to help the other handlers move Cedric's dragon and bring in the second. It was subtle, but I got the feeling that he and one of the others completely despised each other. I decided to just keep watch and see if I could deduce the reason. Just after he returned, the second champion exited the tent and began her task.

"Who is she?" Charlie asked more to himself as Fleur started her task

"That would be the Beauxbatons champion," I replied "She's a Veela."

"Ahh" Charlie said "That would explain..."

"She's a high society little thing from what I've seen." I continued "If I recall you like your women a little more down to earth, like that clumsy metamorph you used to see. What was her name?"

"Nym" Charlie said, squaring his jaw and swallowing visibly.

I looked at him sympathetically. I wouldn't have brought her up if I thought it was still a sore point with him. They had been a couple through his last couple years of school and a year or so after. I was just a kid then and not particularly aware of my siblings' relationships, though I wasn't quite as ignorant as they believed.

"Charlie it's been years." I commented

"I'm not talking about my disastrous love life with my baby sister." Charlie said firmly, but not unkindly

"When will you lot stop referring to me as the 'baby?'" I asked, vexed

"Sure thing squirt." Charlie said grinning

"So, not talking about love lives aside, you seeing anyone?" I asked grinning back

"I was but it ended. Again, not talking about it." he replied

"Fair enough." I said watching Fleur finish her task "Again, a simply silencing charm would have prevented the dragon being woken. Moron."

"I guess I don't have to ask how your studies are going." Charlie laughed

"Top in my year." I shrugged

With Tom's knowledge in my head, doing well in school never felt like an accomplishment. As such, I never made any attempt to play up just how well I did.

"Ginny that's great." Charlie said enthusiastically

"Meh" I said shrugging again

Charlie left again to help the others. That particular handler he seemed to share some animosity with wasn't there, so I didn't have anything to observe in my interest. Once all was ready for the task, Charlie returned and Krum emerged from the tent.

Watching Krum's match, I didn't have quite as much to comment on.

"He's good," I said "Essentially just a big brute, but an effective one."

"Moron just killed three baby dragons though." Charlie spat as the spooked dragon crushed three of the eggs.

Charlie left again to help the others with Krum's dragon and ready the final one. When he returned, he turned to me.

"You're sure he's prepared for this?" he asked "He just got the worst of the four dragons."

"Of course he did," I sighed "I'm still not worried. He's prepared."

Charlie and I just watched as Harry left the tent and took cover behind a rock. Hearing the incantation he used, I waited with my breath held as he tried to talk to the dragon.

"What is he doing just standing there?" Charlie asked "Is he insane?"

"He's talking to it." I said simply

"What?!" he exclaimed

"Harry's a parselmouth," I explained "He can talk to snakes and it turns out dragons too."

"Do you have any idea how useful that could be to us?" Charlie asked in wonder "We could understand them on such a better level if we could someone could translate what they're thinking."

"Charlie, trust me, you want to go use a restroom," I said "The dragon is pissed at you all for using it."

"You can understand them too?!" he asked, louder than he should have

"Don't tell anyone just yet." I replied "It was a leftover 'gift' from Voldemort's diary."

He shivered at the mention of the name "Ginny are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I replied "That was the only thing that I retained from what happened."

It was a simple lie, but I didn't intend for anyone to ever find out about the knowledge in my head save for Harry.

"Now go." I said "I'll see you later."

"I can't just lea..." he paused

Charlie looked at the man leading the group ready to move the angry dragon. It was the same guy I had noticed him appraise angrily earlier. Given the look on his face now, it left no doubt as to whether or not the two got along. I figured to myself that I would have to ask him at some point.

"Yeah, I'll see you later sis," he said turning to leave "and your secret's safe with me, but you really should tell the rest of them."

He left and I was alone to watch Harry bow to the dragon and leave. Not particularly caring what would come next, and happy in the knowledge that he had made it past this unharmed, I left for the chamber so we could celebrate.

Harry's POV

I left the tent feeling slightly disappointed. I had expected to feel some triumph in this moment, whether I was going to succeed in reasoning with the dragon, or if I ended up having to combat it some way. Now though, I just felt used, as if I was still simply someone's puppet to be endangered for the entertainment of others in this case, or someone's idiotic aims in all the others. I swore to myself that after this year, once this idiotic tournament was done, that I wasn't going to be used by anyone, ever again. Adding to my irritation, I noticed Ron coming my way, led on by Hermione.

"Hmm?" I said in greeting

"Ron has something to say to you." Hermione said

"I'm sorry" Ron said, looking pale

"What was that?" I asked in slightly better spirits

"I'm sorry." Ron replied "I was an idiot. I should never have suspected that you had anything to do with this."

"I'm glad to hear you say that" I said cautiously

I saw Hermione smiling in the background.

"Yeah, now if you'll just stop dating Ginny, we can all go back to normal." Ron said

"Excuse me?" I asked

"We can go back to just the three of us," he said, sadly serious "but Ginny's far too young to be dating."

"Ron please..." I cut Hermione off

"You down right bully me for weeks, based solely on a completely moronic assumption," I started, my voice dripping with venom "and now you have the nerve, having realized that you were wrong, to tell me that I can have your friendship back if only I give up the greatest thing to happen to me in my life?"

"Leave her Harry," Ron demanded "she'd do anything you told her to just because you're you. Maybe when you're older we'll see, but she's too young now."

"Do you know her at all?" I yelled "Ginny and I will see each other as we bloody please, and not you nor anyone else will have a say in that but us. If you think she's some fragile flower prime to be taken advantage of then you're an idiot. If you think I'm the kind of guy to take advantage of her like you're implying then you know nothing of me either."

"Stop it both of you" Hermione cried "This is moronic. Ron you know Harry better than that, and Harry, even if he is wrong, he's trying to protect his sister."

"Stay out of this," Ron growled "I won't let you hurt my sister."

"I'm not going to," I said as slowly and plainly as possible "Your brothers are completely supportive of our relationship, as are your parents, minus that idiotic article. Stay the hell away from us or..."

He cut me off "Or what?"

"Or you'll be dealing with he,r" I laughed without humor "Ginny isn't as patient as I am."

I left, barely noticing that Hermione went in the opposite direction, and leaving Ron alone. I supposed even she might have her limits, and while I admired her attempts to keep our old friendships in one piece, I feared that this was impossible.

Ginny's POV

"I can't believe that idiot," I exclaimed "Does he really think that I'm that easily taken advantage of?"

"To what little credit I'm still willing to give him," Harry replied "I think this goes back to the fact that he still feels guilty about the diary."

"Admirable as that may be," I responded "I'm not the same little girl that was used by Tom back then, and you are not Voldemort."

"Though weirdly enough, I am another horcrux" Harry said thinking

"Is that supposed to help?" I asked

"Sorry" he replied, kissing me "He'll give this nonsense up eventually, in the mean time, we can enjoy quiet moments like this."

As if fate itself wanted to disprove him, Dobby chose that moment to appear.

"Harry, Ragnok wanted me to give you this." Dobby said holding out a rolled up scroll

Taking it, Harry asked "Do you still have Skeeter's whereabouts?"

"Yes, the buglady is at home." Dobby replied

"Buglady?" I asked

"Yes, I've been meaning to ask," Dobby began "Can all reporters turn into insects?"

"Say what now?" Harry asked, putting down the scroll

"That Skeeter woman can turn into a beetle" Dobby said "and I don't mean like those singing beetles you like."

"She's an animagus" Harry breathed, standing up and pacing "That's how she gets the information she doesn't just make up."

"The Daily Prophet is employing an unregistered animagus." I said "This is huge."

"Indeed." Harry replied reading the scroll "According to Ragnok, the plan is a go. Within the week, I'll own a majority share in the paper."

"Once that's done, you'll be free to not only fire Skeeter..." I said

"But make sure she never works again" he finished

"Technically speaking, you could probably just get her thrown in jail for being what she is" I said "She's not wealthy enough to bribe her way out of that."

"At this point I want control of the Prophet" He said "If they can allow trash like this to be written about, as far as they know harmless, teenagers, how can I trust them not to turn of me in the future? Especially if the likes of Lucius were to pay them to."

"Thinking ahead, planning out possible scenarios, and strategizing for the coming war?" I said walking over to him "Have I ever told you I find clever planning incredibly sexy?"

"Well give me an army and call me Patton" he said with a grin

"What?" I asked confused

"Muggle thing" he replied, before kissing me

Harry's POV

After we finished going over just what we were going to do with the Prophet, Ginny and I made our way to library, as had become a near nightly ritual. Once certain that it was clear and empty, we made our way back to the bust of Ravenclaw.

"I'm certain that note is talking about her chamber, I just don't know how" Ginny grumbled, feeling the statue for any kind of bump

"I'm sure it is but the diadem may not be the crown mentioned" I replied "or wait..."

"Harry?" Ginny asked

"She" I replied pacing back and forth

"Huh?" I barely heard her ask

'She' I thought to myself 'Why she?'

"Why does it say she?" I asked aloud

"Still not following Harry." Ginny said

"It specifies she," I said "She knows the way."

"Yeah it does." Ginny said

"Granted I wouldn't look nearly as good wearing that tiara as you do," I said "but I could still put it on, why would the note specify gender unless..."

I took the diadem from my bag and placed it on the bust

"Unless she is Ravenclaw" I finished

The diadem fit perfectly and a loud noise came from the wall to my right.

"_Silencio" _I cast immediately, not wanting to draw attention to us

"The bookcases." Ginny said staring

Sure enough, two of the bookcases were moving slowly apart, revealing between them a truly ancient looking hall with a staircase leading down. Once the cases had stopped moving, Ginny and I moved to look down the stairs it had revealed.

"_Lumos Maxima._" Ginny cast, sending a large ball of light down the stairs

"Everything looks good," I commented "Shall we?"

"After you." Ginny said smiling

We walked down the steps, enjoying the fact that, in all likelihood, we had finally found Ravenclaw's chamber. Just as we reached the old, weathered door at the bottom, I was struck by an odd sensation. It was as if the magic in the air had somehow become palpable. Pushing the feeling aside, I tentative pulled on the old door handle.

Suddenly, Ginny and I were both pushed backward into the stairs, landing with an audible thud.

"Ow" Ginny grumbled "What the hell..."

She didn't have time to finish that statement as the walls started closing in on us.

"Fuck" I spat "Ginny come"

I grabbed her arm and turned to run, only to see that the bookcases had closed off, blocking all exit. The walls were moving slowly but were still threatening to crush us. With dread, I found myself wishing she had just left a basilisk.

* * *

><p><strong>AN** So a slight cliffhanger here. Reviews are always, more than welcome

Next time: plots are hatched, eggs are opened, and discoveries are made.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Harry's POV

We stood there horrified as the walls to either side of us slowly closed in.

"Harry, the wall behind us is closing in as well." Ginny said, sounding as scared as I was.

I looked and saw that she was correct, the bookcases appeared to be coming for us as well.

'That's not possible' I thought to myself briefly before calling out

"Dobby," I called "It's an emergency."

Dobby appeared before us "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean what's wrong?!" I asked "The walls are closing in, get us out of here."

"Just take us to the library over there" Ginny said

"Okay" Dobby said, confused

He took hold of our hands and teleported us out of the death trap. I was relieved for a moment before seeing the library walls were closing in as well.

"What the hell is going on?" Ginny yelled "There's no way any trap could be this powerful."

"What trap?" I barely heard Dobby ask

"The whole school looks like it's collapsing!" I exclaimed, running for the entrance "We need to get everyone out..."

and all I saw was black.

Ginny's POV

I woke up, not sure where I was, though I noticed that it didn't appear to any part of Hogwarts I had ever seen. Looking around, I saw Harry laying down in the bed next to mine.

"Harry!" I exclaimed, rushing to his side "Wake up."

"Might not want to do that," came a voice to my right "He was hit by the same thing you were."

I reached for my wand, only to realize it wasn't there. Turning, prepared to attack anyway, I saw a man in healer's robes, with sandy brown hair, standing with Dobby.

"Where am I?" Harry asked, rising slowly next to me "Healer Cox?"

"Your elf here brought you to St Mungo's again." Cox replied "Mind telling me what you were doing when you were hit with that charm?"

"What charm?" I asked "You two know each other?"

"I'm Healer Cox," the man said "Mr Potter here was brought by his elf this last summer."

"You're the man who treated him." I said

"Yes he is," Harry said "Healer, what happened to us?"

"That's what I wanted to know." Cox said "You two were under the effect of a illusion based charm."

"None of that was real?" Harry asked

"You kept saying that walls were closing in." Dobby said "When you went to leave, I knocked you out and took you here. Sorry."

"Thank you Dobby" I said "How long have we been here?"

"You two were out about half an hour." Cox said "Now seriously, your medical report will stay confidential, but I need to put something down for the cause."

"We were looking at an unexplored part of Hogwarts," Harry said "There was an old trap laid in that area."

"In the school?" Cox asked in disbelief "Are they insane?"

"To be fair, we weren't supposed to go there." I replied

"Do try not to get yourselves killed kids." Cox said "You two are are good to go."

"I'll try." he said "Thanks again Healer Cox"

"Thank you" I said following Harry

We both took Dobby's hands and were teleported to Slytherin's chamber. We sat down and took a moment to recover.

"Oh shit the diadem" I said rising

"I put it on the table here." Dobby said indicating to where he's placed it

"Dobby did you move the diadem after you brought us to Cox?" Harry asked

"Yes" Dobby replied

"Did you happen to notice if the bookshelves started to close immediately," he asked "I'm assuming that they're closing was part of the illusion."

"They were still open." Dobby said "I rushed back to the hospital, but I don't think that they moved."

"Let's go" I said

The three of us rushed back to the library, only to see that the shelves had closed back.

"I wonder." Harry said, placing the diadem back on the bust

"Harry, we can't go back there" I said "Not yet at least."

"I doubt we will," he responded, before silencing the shelves again "but I am testing a theory."

Once the bookshelves opened fully, he removed the diadem and watched the shelves with interest. They didn't immediately move, but rather remained in place for a couple minutes before they started to return.

"She who wears the crown..." Harry said

"That charm specifically effected the mind," I said, finally understanding what he was thinking "The hallucinations..."

"I'm willing to bet that the diadem's properties would block out such a spell long enough for her to undo on herself." he said, putting it back on the bust

"Pass it" I said holding out my hand

"Ginny, I'm not going to willingly put you back in harm" he replied

"Tom knew of such magic and how to undo it," I said "If I wasn't so terrified in the moment, I could have fixed things."

"I would rather test out the theory myself." Harry said

"and that's sweet," I said "but we know there's no actual danger, so even if the diadem doesn't shield me, you and Dobby will be able to get me out. Besides, like you said, I look better wearing it than you would."

I took the diadem, put it on and made my way down the steps. Opening the door, I felt the sensation of the trap's impact again, but being prepared for this time, was able to brace myself so as not to be knocked back. Walking through the door, I was unaffected by the mental aspect of the trap long enough to undo its effects.

"Dobby" I called, taking it off.

The elf appeared by my side, disappeared, and returned with Harry. Apparition to a place one hadn't seen before was potentially deadly, but house-elves could appear by someone's side if called without risk. They would appear by that person's side by instinct, using the person as a focusing point.

"Wow," Harry said looking around, before turning to me "are you alright?"

"I'm fine Harry" I said hugging him

"I have to admit it's a brilliantly simple defense." Harry said "If anyone broke through the bookshelves and made their way down here, they'd be terrified until they passed out from fright."

"Ravenclaw would then find them, wake them, and deal with them." I finished

Looking around myself, I found myself in a small but beautiful and comfortable looking study. The only furniture was a desk to the side, and an ancient looking bed. I supposed that the bed signified that Ravenclaw occasionally slept here, if her reading or writing drew on longer than she had meant it to. There were no windows, so this presumably wasn't her bedroom. Aside from that, what lined the walls were ceiling high shelves of books. The most defining characteristic however was the thick coat of dust that covered the room, and the cobwebs that littered the top half of the shelves.

"This is awful." Dobby said, getting to work cleaning

"Dobby, that's alrigh..." Harry cut himself off, realizing that the elf was going to work through the night on this with or without protest on his part.

"This place does look like it could be beautiful." I commented "If not for all the dirt and spiders."

"Be thankful it's not acrumantulas." Harry chuckled "I don't think anyone's been in here since Rowena died."

"A thousand years of dirt." I laughed "I think my mum would react like Dobby."

Brushing some of the dirt off the ornate desk, Harry opened the drawer, and pulled out the contents. A raven feather, silver tipped quill, presumably enchanted, since it probably should have disintegrated by now, an ink well, and a thick, leather-bound book were all that were there. Looking through the book, Harry grinned.

"It's her grimoire." he said "Between this and the dozens of books on the shelves, I can't imagine just how much we'll be able to learn from all this."

"Hermione would have a heart attack." I laughed

Harry yawned and sat down on the bed Dobby had just cleaned. Feeling much the same, I sat next to him and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Hell of a day huh?" he asked

"mmhmm" I replied, exhaustion finally creeping in

As Harry leaned back, I adjusted to allow him to lie down on the bed, and decided to lie next to him him, resting my head on his chest.

"You sure?" he asked

"It's just sleep." I said, getting comfortable

He seemed more than happy with that, resting one hand on my waist of tracing the fingers of the other through my hair. We quickly drifted off into a comfortable slumber.

Harry's POV

I woke, happily, having slept better than I think I had in my entire life. It took me a moment to realize that Ginny was in my arms, her red hair sprawled out over my chest. A pleasant warmth spread through my chest, and I held her closer, running my fingers through her hair.

"That feels good." Ginny whispered, waking up

"Morning" I said

She looked up at me and moved in for a kiss.

'Morning breathe be damned' I thought to myself, drawing her up in my arms and enjoying the feeling of her lips on mine as her body lay flushed against me.

Eventually she pulled away, she chuckled, saying "Hell of a way to wake up."

"Agreed" I said, before groaning against my will as she unconsciously rubbed against a particular part of me.

"Oh" she said, getting off the bed, "Sorry."

"Don't be," I said adjusting my robes "Gin, are you okay with this?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't." she replied "There are a lot of things that I won't be ready for for a while, but I liked sleeping in your arms."

"I liked that too." I said "I've honestly never slept better."

I took her hand and kissed the top of it, looking directly in the eye "If you ever feel like things are moving to fast between us, tell me. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, or make you feel pressured."

"You aren't what my idiot brother seems to think you are." she said brushing her hand through my hair, "and you could never be the kind of aggressive moron your cousin is."

"That feels great." I said, leaning into her touch

"Come here" she said pulling me toward her so my head down so she could reach all of it

Resting my head back against her, I moaned as she began massaging my scalp. Scratching her short, relatively sharp nails through my hair, she managed to get me completely relaxed and content within moments.

"I never did get the chance to tell you just how happy I was for you yesterday did I?" she asked "Your solution to the dragon was brilliant."

"Thank you" I whispered, enjoying her continued efforts

"I know you'll not only get through this, but win it." she murmured still scratching my head "Promise me you'll do whatever you need to to win Harry. Don't let your nobility get in the way."

I turned around, and moved up her body as she leaned back. Capturing her lips with mine, I showed her my appreciation for her loving attention.

"I'll win it for you, and for me." I said, caressing her cheek with my hand "I won't let anyone use either of us after this. I will fight them all if I need to."

"Us against he world huh?" she asked, smiling without humor

"If it comes to that..." I said, my voice trailing off

She sat up and walked back "I'd fight the world for you."

"We'd fight it together" I said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear

Her shining brown eyes seemed to sparkle with emotion that didn't need to be spoken. Eventually she turned away, and walked toward the door.

"Ginny" I called out

"I need to shower" She said

"No, I mean the door..."

"Oh right," She said "Dobby"

At her instruction, the elf transported her to Slytherin's chamber and I sat down thinking over my relationship with her. I had no problem taking things slowly, as much as I wanted the girl. It was our first, and I hoped only relationship for us both and enjoying each step forward seemed far more fun than simply skipping to what the most primal parts of me wanted. Still though, the thought of following and joining her in that shower was...intoxicating.

Ginny's POV

It had taken me a while to get ready. Between the great parts of the morning, and the old fears that crept up every time things got like that, I just had a lot to deal with.

'You honestly think he's interested in more from you than lies between your legs?' Tom would have said 'You're nothing but a whore Weasley.'

'He isn't like that and I am not what that bastard said I was" I thought to myself, pushing the thought from my mind.

It was Harry. Even with everything he had been through and as ruthless as he was becoming, he was still an amazingly good person. He even said that he was happy taking things slowly and that we should given how young we are. The problem was that with everything we had both been through, I felt so much older than I truly was, and I knew he felt the same. With the threats that we still had to face, it was easy to get swept away in each moment, as if it could be our last. I simply wasn't ready to take anything that far though, and as much as logically, I knew he understood, the insecurities left by Tom occasionally stopped me from believing that I could be seen as more than simply the objects that he saw everyone around him as.

"We will have time" I said aloud, "I just need to believe that."

I finished up and left for breakfast. I knew Harry wouldn't be there, as he had a rather busy day planned.

Harry's POV

It was with confidence that I strode into the Daily Prophet's main office. Well, confidence and a pair of aurors. Fudge had been very interested to hear that Rita Skeeter was an animagus, possibly because of a truly unflattering article she had written about him some weeks back, but I can hardly be certain of that. While normally, such accusations would have required proof to warrant an investigation, at my word, he was happy to sign off on a warrant for aurors to test her for being one. If she turned out not to be, there would be trouble for us both, but I trusted Dobby's word implicitly. I was also quite happy that he allowed me to accompany the aurors.

"Can I help you?" the secretary at the main office door asked

"Auror business." one of the two said, effective silencing the woman

"So we need a hook," I heard a voice say as I opened the door "Something that will get the reader's attention."

"How about 'star reporter dismissed amid unlawful spying investigation'?" I asked entering the room

"Harry Potter," Rita said rising "and aurors."

Auror Smith, I believe his name was, cast the animagus detection charm before anyone could speak further. It's us was usually restricted to officially warranted cases only, but Fudge had seen to that.

"Rita Skeeter" the auror said "You are under arrest on charges of becoming an animagus without registration, as well as multiple counts of unlawful violation of privacy."

"How?" she asked before settling her gaze on me "You little..."

She didn't get any further as the aurors seized her wand and carted her off. They hadn't been pleased to be taking a teenager along with them, and didn't bother to check if I was following them when they left. Shutting the door behind them, I turned to the editors in the room.

"I wasn't kidding about that story part" I said, reaching into my robes and pulling out the documentation proving my ownership, and handing them to the nearest man.

"You will be running a full story, showing her illegal activity and distancing this paper from her completely." I continued You will also be running a full retraction of that hack-job she did on me with a full apology."

"What makes you think we'll listen to any of this?" a man I recognized as Steven Broadbent, the editor in chief, from the personal files I had looked over.

"He owns the damned paper" said the one I had handed the documents to, man I recognized as Henry Powell.

"I do" I said, allowing the wizard to hand the papers to the others "The kind of shoddy journalism that has defined this paper for as long as I've been aware of it is going to end."

"You can't do this" Broadbent sneered "Owner or no, if you think the public is going to take kindly to a petulant child attempting to seize control of the press you've another thing coming."

"I had your contracts looked over before I came here" I snarled "Your confidentiality clauses include matters of ownership. I would be more than happy to bury anyone foolish enough to break that clause in litigation.

"I don't think..." Another tried to add before I cut him off

"I don't give a damn what you think!" I bellowed "You allowed that charlatan to run without restraint, ruining the reputations of dozens of innocent people. That laughable article she wrote about me is nothing compared to other things you've let her get away with."

I noticed with satisfaction that I now had their full attention. Each had now had a chance to look over the documents and I saw a glimmer of comprehension in all the eyes I beheld as they realized that I did indeed own their livelihood.

"This will change." I said more quietly, but no less intensely "This publication will, going forward, hold itself to a far higher standard of journalistic integrity. I've no major staff changes in mind just yet, but I will have named my liaison with the paper by the end of the week. For now, run through the instructions I've left written here. If I see any insubordination, it will result in the perpetrator's immediate termination, understood?"

"Yes Mr. Potter" Powell said "We'll get right on this."

"Good" I said "Just to reiterate, the story on Skeeter's arrest, and the paper's renouncing of her work will be the headline tomorrow, and the retraction and apology for my story take prominence within. You have a good day."

I left, pleased with myself and got Dobby to transport me back to school once I was out of sight. I still had my afternoon classes to deal with after all.

Ginny's POV

Harry and I hadn't had much time to train or talk the evening before, with him going through possible people to name as his representative in the Daily Prophet, through much of the evening. Regardless, he told me what had happened and when, the next morning, after we finished our training with Neville and Luna, I sat down to eat, it didn't surprise me much to see Errol flying with with a letter in my direction. Moving the plate of eggs, he nearly landed in, I opened the letter with more than a little hope.

_Dear Ginny_

_I am so sorry for believing that rag of a newspaper over you and Harry. I should have known better than to think that of him, but got carried away in thinking that my daughter had been hurt. I cannot believe that they allowed that blatant criminal to write to them for years without checking her work. I will be writing them at once to voice my outrage. I hope you can forgive my rushing to conclusions and know that I do know you and Harry better than that. Included in the envelope is a letter for him as well. Sorry again_

_Love Mum_

Smiling, I handed Harry his letter and got back to my breakfast.

"That's nice of her" he said putting the letter away in his robes "I can't imagine just how much work it's going to be for whoever I choose to fix that giant mess."

"Did you decide on anyone yet?" I asked, making sure to keep the conversation as vague as possible

"I don't just want to pick someone that I don't know" he replied "I wouldn't be able to trust them and I can't afford to spend much of my own time on the project. I was going to talk to Snuffles about it tonight, you wanna join me?"

"Really?" I asked, surprised

"I'd like for him to meet my girlfriend" Harry said, raising my hand to kiss

Before I could reply, Hermione came over

"Did you read this?" she asked "I can't believe it."

"Good to see them take responsibility for their actions." Harry replied "I for am happy with it."

"That horrid reporter was spying on people as an insect," Hermione said shuddering "I can't imagine what kind of private things she spied on."

"Animagi can be really creepy." Harry said "You think she's bad, consider that the first time I met Ron, he had a grown man on his lap."

"Oh Merlin, I hadn't even thought of that" I groaned "I am so glad I never let that creep be in the bathroom as I bathed."

"Yeah, I have to kill him then," Harry said "and the time in Azkaban would be really inconvenient."

I laughed, "My valiant protector."

"You know it" he said, wrapping an arm around my waist

"Speaking of my brother," I said, turning to Hermione "Where is he?"

"Oh who knows?" she muttered "He's been driving me insane lately."

"You know Hermione, you owe him nothing." Harry said "If he wants to be an ass, he can be on his own until he grows up."

"I know," she said "I just hate seeing our friendships fall apart over such idiotic reasons. You obviously didn't put your name in the goblet, you two are actually really good together."

"Thank you" I said "Oh, and Harry, I'd love to."

"Thank you" Harry said, kissing my cheek "Now if you will excuse me, I need to get to transfiguration."

"Right, I'll head with you," Hermione said "See you later Ginny."

I sat there, more happy than I realized I would be to see that one of Harry's oldest friends liked our relationship. As independent as he had become, I knew that Hermione and my fool of a brother's opinions still did matter to an extent to him. The most selfish part of me hoped that Hermione would let go of her hope to keep Ron from continuing to be a prat, and give Harry the friend I knew he still needed. I finished my breakfast in silence and pondered what meeting Sirius was going to be like.

Harry's POV

Hermione and I got to transfiguration early, and I was surprised to see that Ron was already there. Putting that out of my mind, I sat down next to Neville and waited for Professor McGonagall to arrive.

"Hey Neville," I said quietly "You're really improving in your spell casting, you know."

"Yeah, I've actually been doing better in a lot of my classes" he replied "Except potions of course."

"The trick to potions is to pretend the bat isn't there and study on your own" I said "Just make it clear in your head that you don't have a potions professor and work from there."

"I guess that makes sense." he said, just as McGonagall arrived

The class itself went as well as most of mine had that year, and I was happy that given all the things I had to worry about, that I could cross my studies off that list. McGonagall finished teaching early, something that I had never seen her do before, and turned to address us directly.

"Now, before I let you go," she said "The staff have been told to inform you all that, as is part of the tradition of the Tri-Wizard tournament, there will be a Yule Ball held this year. It is open to all students fourth year and older, though younger students may attend if invited by an older one. You may go.

"Oh Merlin," Neville said to himself "Who will I ask?"

"Why don't you ask Luna?" I said

"I couldn't." he said quickly, before turning back to me "Do you think she'd say yes?"

"I do, but there's only one way to find out for certain." I replied

"Mmhmm" Neville said, leaving while obviously lost in thought

"Mr Potter" McGonagall called "Hold for a moment."

"Professor?" I said

"It is tradition that the tournament champions take the opening dance at this ball." she said "You will need to make certain that you have a date."

"I'd look rather silly dancing with myself" I commented "Unless I bleached my hair, I suppose."

"What?" McGonagall asked, confused

"Muggle reference, sorry" I said "I won't have a problem with getting a date."

"I just wanted to make sure you knew." she said "You know Mr. Potter, I am impressed by how much more seriously you've been taking your studies this year."

"Yeah well, something good had to come out of this tournament mess." I said

"I'm glad that you can look at it like that." she said "You should get to your next class Mr. Potter."

I went through the rest of the day focused on the various classes. More than anything they allowed me to get my mind off of more important things for a while. I may not have learned much, but the momentary distraction was appreciated. At dinner, I met up with Ginny.

"Hey," I said, kissing her lightly and sitting down next to her "How was your morning?"

"Dull," she said, adding in a whisper "I can't wait to meet snuffles."

"I'm looking forward to that too." I said "Ginny, there's a Yule Ball that's part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"Oh?" she said, cocking an eyebrow and smiling

"I was wondering if you'd like to go with me." I said, smiling as well

"Oh, I don't know," She said coyly "Of course, I'd love to."

"That's great," I said "I will need to learn how to dance though."

"Mum made me learn how to dance formally," Ginny said nonchalantly "I can teach you."

"Really?" I asked, relieved "That's great. We'll be part of the opening dance."

"Then we'll give them all a show." she said, kissing me

We ate quietly, enjoying each other's company. Neither Neville, nor Luna were anywhere to be seen, and I guessed they were talking. Hermione wasn't around either, but she often lost track of time in the library. Ron was sitting there, occasionally giving us the same glares he had for weeks, but even he seemed more distracted than anything.

After dinner we made our way to the Chamber of Secrets. I had had Dobby smuggle a couple goblins in to install a floo port in the chamber a few days back, and figured that Sirius could speak with us without fear of being interrupted or caught if it was in the confines of a place that only Ginny and I could enter. Waiting patiently, his face appeared in the fireplace around the time he had specified.

"Harry" he said smiling "I'm sorry I haven't been able to contact you before now, things have been dangerous."

"You're okay right?" I asked concerned

"I'm fine," Sirius replied "I won't say where I am, but it's beyond the Ministry's control."

"Sirius, I wanted to introduce you," I said "This is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley."

"Hello Mr Black" Ginny said

Sirius gave a barking laugh "You dog, already a girlfriend. It's good to meet you Ginny, and please call me Sirius."

"He's serious about that." I said grinning

"That's really bad pup." Sirius laughed, "Now Ginny, I have to ask, what are your intentions toward my godson?"

"Sirius" I groaned

"All quite dishonorable I swear" Ginny said, wiggling her eyebrows

Sirius barked his laugh again "I like her pup."

His expression became far more grim then and he said "How go things with the tournament?"

"Well so far," I said "I got through the first task without difficultly, and I'm actually in first place."

"That's great" Sirius said warmly "What was the first task?"

"I had to get a golden egg from the nest of a dragon." I said

"WHAT!?" Sirius yelled "Oh, sorry, I should be quiet."

"No its alright, we're in the Chamber of Secrets" Ginny said "We don't have to worry."

"Why are you in there?" Sirius asked "and how did you deal with the dragon?"

"I've made this place a base of sorts for myself and Ginny," I said "and I just asked the dragon nicely."

"You can talk to dragons?" Sirius asked with a his jaw hanging open.

"It turns out yeah." I said smiling "So what danger did you run into?"

"Well, I am on the run," Sirius said "Its mostly been fine, but I ran into a masked wizard a couple days ago."

"A Death Eater?" I asked, concerned

"No, it was a different mask." he responded "He was probably just nuts, kept babbling about the 'Cult of Worms'. Buckbeak managed to fly off before he could do anything."

"The Cult of Worms?" Ginny asked

"Yeah, makes the Death Nibblers sound sane." Sirius laughed "Kept going on about how the worm master was going rise from his defeat."

"I'd recommend staying away from that area anyway." I said

"I'll stay safe," Sirius said "Anyway, I wanted to tell you, be careful around Karkaroff, he's a Death Eater. He's a coward, but still."

"I know," I said "It's not like I'm not used to being around Death Eater though."

"Still, Snivillus may be an ass, but he has an odd loyalty to Dumbledore." Sirius said "Karkaroff doesn't and while I doubt he'd try anything, he's still worth keeping an eye on."

"I will." I said "One last thing though. I sorta took over the Daily Prophet and I need someone that can serve as my representative there?"

"You what!?" Sirius asked in disbelief "How and why?"

"Both of those require long, complicated answers." I said "My current problem is that I can't possibly manage it and attend class at the same time. Do you know anyone who could act as my representative and proxy?"

"What about Moony?" he asked

"I considered him but didn't think he'd be interested." I said "You think he would be?"

"He needs a job." Sirius said "I'm sure he'd take this."

"Their confidentiality clauses would prevent them from revealing his furry little problem even if they found out." I said

"It wouldn't be a public position anyway" Ginny added

"Like I say," Sirius said "I'm sure he'd take you up on it."

"Alright, I contact him. Thanks Sirius," I said "Stay safe."

"Take care Harry," Sirius said "It was good meeting you Ginny."

and he was gone.

I turned to Ginny "I have got to get that Rat."

"Have you thought of anything that could help with that?" she asked

"At his heart, Peter's a coward." I said "He hid in your home for years, but now that his cover is blown, who else does he have to turn to?"

"He could try being someone else's pet rat?" Ginny suggested

"He could, but he's also not very smart." I said "He could have hidden out as a pet rat in the muggle world and never seen Sirius again. They may have eventually wondered how a rat could live so long, but Sirius would never have seen a muggle paper."

"What do think he's likely to do?" she asked

"He was spooked," I said "He's also really pathetic. I can only think of one member of Voldemort's crew who could be desperate enough to make use of him."

"Tom himself" Ginny said snapping her fingers "Do you think Wormtail could be involved in this mess?"

"Doubtful, though I don't doubt for a moment that Snakeface is involved." I said "I've been looking at the map daily since the Goblet incident, but he knows about the map. To keep this plan on track, Voldemort probably has someone staying around to make sure things don't get derailed."

"So you hope that Wormtail is still with Tom." she said

"Exactly." I said "My hope is that if I play along in this, that I'll eventually come face to face with him."

"With Peter by his side." she said

"It's not exactly a plan, but I don't exactly know where either of them could be." I said

"Do you have any idea who could be his mole here?" Ginny asked

"Not really," I said "I've been watching Karkaroff every time he appears in the school, but I honestly don't think its him. He seems too self-obsessed to partake in something like this

"Well, let's deal with that another time." Ginny said "For now, let's just get to training."

"Sure" I said, going with her to our training room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN** The egg scene will be next chapter. As always reviews are more than welcomed.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Harry's POV

I hadn't expected Fudge to move as quickly as he was, but the letter he wrote to me made it clear that the omnibus bill was going to pass early this morning. Early for politicians was near noon, so in my spare period after lunch, I paid him a visit. Walking up to the door, I noticed that his secretary wasn't at her desk and figured that she was still at lunch. Unusually, his door was slightly ajar, allowing me hear the heated conversation going on within.

"I truly believe this to be a mistake Minister," a pompous voice that I figured belonged to Lucy-boy said "Change of this magnitude must be introduced more carefully."

"Nonsense Lucius," Fudge replied "This bill is for the betterment of the country, and all signs already indicate that my approval rating will soar over this."

It was refreshing to know that I wasn't unique in being shown how transparent a career politician Fudge was.

"Very well Minister," Lucius said with some reluctance "Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm afraid my funds are rather tied up at the moment, something this bill won't be helping, and I won't be able to make my usual donation to your upcoming campaign."

I could practically hear the wheels turning in Lucius' mind. I supposed this sort of light threatening was common for him.

"That's understandable Lucius," Fudge said without a care.

'A, let's say 'man' of Lucy-boy's power will be able to find out about my involvement here eventually.' I thought to myself 'But why make it easy on him?'

I moved silently and hid away from him as he strode, obviously irritated from Fudge's office. Once he was clear of the room, I went and knocked on Fudge's open door.

"Minister?" I asked.

"Harry," he said jovially "Come in my boy."

"Was that Lucius Malfoy I saw walking out of here?" I asked.

"Yes," Fudge said "He came to voice some concerns over the muggle education act."

"Oh?" I asked, trying my hardest to appear confused.

"I made it clear that I believed those concerns to be unfounded," Fudge said happily.

"I'm glad," I said "I got your letter and wanted to make sure that all went well."

"It did," Fudge said "In fact, discounting those who had to abstain their vote, it passed nearly unanimously."

'Ah democracy as work,' I thought, pushing to fight the grin that threatened to appear on my face.

"I'm very glad Minister," I said.

"I must admit I'm still slightly anxious to see how this will hit the press," Fudge said.

"I'm sure it will be very well received." I said, knowing that I'd already passed clear instructions as to what was to be said about it.

"Minister," came a sickeningly sweet voice behind me.

I turned around to see what I first believed to be an abnormally large toad in a bright pink getup. It took me a moment to realize that it was in fact a human woman.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the toad woman said "I didn't realize you were in a meeting."

"It's alright Delores." Fudge said "In fact, I'd like you to meet someone. Delores, this is Harry Potter, Harry, this is Delores Umbridge, my Senior Undersecretary."

"A pleasure," I said.

"Harry here has been doing his utmost to learn all that he can about the Ministry." Fudge said.

"How wonderful an idea." Umbridge said with her sugar-sweet, utterly fake sounding voice "I wish most people your age would think to put in such effort. Some come here quite confused, and waste so much of their time trying to implement change that isn't in the best interest of the ministry. Which is why I'm here."

"We discussed this Delores." Fudge said "The bill is here to stay, and I think that it's a wonderful idea."

"Well I'll leave you two to it," I said "I need to meet Madame Bones anyway to learn about the workings of the DMLE."

"Very good Harry." Fudge said "Thanks for stopping by."

"Nice to meet your Mr. Potter," Umbridge said.

"Nice to meet you Madame Umbridge." I said "Have a good day Minister."

I left and went to seek out Amelia Bones. I had heard much of her in my time here, but though I had gotten a look at most of the departments within the ministry by now, I had yet to go through the DMLE. Truth be told, I had done enough research on my own so that such a tour was unnecessary. Reaching her door, I knocked.

"Come in." came the commanding call from within

Opening the door, I entered to see a stern looking, middle aged woman. She was attractive to be sure, but had the cold, calculating gaze of a general.

"Hello Madame Bones" I said "I'm Harry Potter, the minister sent me to learn the inner workings of your department."

"Yes Mr. Potter," she said, sounding slightly weary "The Minister informed me of my obligation."

I chuckled "I wouldn't worry madame, I don't require much of an explanation. The DMLE deals with all matters of law enforcement, from animagus registration, to trading dangerous artefacts, to criminal investigations."

"If you already know the basic functions of the department," Bones said "why come here?"

"You fascinate me." I said "Of all the department heads in the ministry, you are, according to my sources, the least politically minded of the bunch. If the Minister were to step down, you are by far my favourite to take the minister's seat."

"If you truly have 'contacts' here, you know that my becoming Minister is unlikely." she replied.

"You refuse to play the game." I said "Admirable as that may be, it does impede your ability to move up in the political ranks. Sometimes though, the game can be played on one's behalf."

Bones looked more bemused than anything, "Just what are you offering?"

"I assume that you were in the Wizengamot chambers earlier when the Minister's new bill passed." I said.

"I was," she replied.

"The program to help those without their potions NEWT should be of assistance to you I assume." I said.

"You are oddly informed for someone so young, even someone as interested as you are?," Bones commented.

"I've an interest in knowing about these things." I said "I believe that we are in desperate need of more aurors, and I suspect that you agree."

"I read that you were in the report for the attack during the Quidditch World Cup." Bones said "Is that what this is about?"

"Voldemort's old forces are stirring, I've read multiple accounts of attacks like those that happened in the years before the war." I said, becoming annoyed at her reaction to his name "Situations like this always get worse before they get better."

"That bill will help things if that is the case." she said "But what does any of this do for getting me into Fudge's chair?"

"If things continue to get worse, and I'm going to guess you think that they will," I said "Fudge's administration will break under the pressure. There is little anyone could do to change that, and I want to ensure that in the case of this possibility, there will be someone here who could lead the country through such a terrible time."

"Why are you so concerned with this?" she asked "You're a kid, why get so involved in the affairs of adults?"

"I saw a monster kill my parents, when I was only a year old." I said "I may have only a single vague memory of that but it still had an effect. That his followers are still out free and worse than that, in positions of power in the world is enough for me to want to get involved."

"Reports of trouble have been rising lately but it isn't quite like things were during the beginning of the war." she said "None the less, increased personnel in the auror corp will help this, but if things were to get much worse, it wouldn't help fast enough."

"Well, I was thinking of sponsoring a major event over New Years," I said "My contributions would be anonymous of course, and the purpose would be to get as much of wizarding high society there as possible. If you agree to host it, you could not only increase your own political clout, and make allies, but you could also campaign for increased interest in the profession."

"Minister Fudge would be immediately threatened by such a move." Amelia replied "and I've never been much of a politician."

"Fudge's approval rating is going to go through the roof over this bill." I said "He's undoing one of his predecessor's mistakes and simultaneously making the world better and safer for all. He won't fear a thing for months after this, and the press are going to paint him as Merlin incarnate."

I couldn't help but smirk at the fact that despite Amelia's obviously iron will, she still couldn't help a slight smile at the imagery.

I continued "What this gala event would do would be to allow you to draw the support you need to further your own career down the line. Such an event would also draw the press and you would be able to make an impassioned plea for more people to consider the career path."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked "What's in it for you?"

"Madame Bones, the last time our world fell apart, it claimed the lives of both my parents." I said "I want to do anything that I can to ensure that such a thing doesn't happen to anyone else."

Her steely gaze softened as she obviously accepted my reasoning.

"Alright, I'll do it." she said "Just what do you have in mind?"

"I mail you the details in the coming days." I said

"Alright, I must say today has been full of surprises." she said "I still can't believe that this ministry was giving so much money each month to those people so long after the war."

"I think it is fair to say that many mistakes were made during the immediate months after the war." I replied

"Why do you say that?" Amelia asked

"Well, I assume that like most people, you took an interest in the Sirius Black case when he first escape," I said.

Her eyes took on an oddly haunted look for a moment before turning harder than I had yet seen them.

"Well there were a couple students, a year older than I out on the grounds the night he was almost captured," I said "Moronic, I know but according to them, he claimed he was innocent, which I would expect all criminal to do, but oddly, he also claimed to have never received a trial."

"That's not possible." Amelia said with an odd degree of certainty

"I thought he was lying as well," I continued "but when I had people look into it, they couldn't find any record of such a trial ever happening."

Amelia looked off in the distance and I got the feeling that I would have been very interested to know what was going through her mind.

"I'll look into that Mr. Potter." she said.

"It may well be a good idea to look into everything that happened in that period." I said "Goodness know just how much could have been mismanaged during that chaotic time."

"That would take a long time to accomplish." she said.

"Well we can handle things we know about first." I said.

"If there is any truth to Mr. Black's claims," Amelia started "I will find out about it."

"Alright," I said "Have a good day Madame Bones."

"You as well Mr. Potter." she said.

Ginny's POV

"So he asked you to the ball?" I asked

"Yes he was quite nice." Luna replied "I must say it was unexpected."

I grinned "I think he really likes you."

"He is becoming rather handsome." Luna said "Now that the wrackspurts have left him, he's finally becoming his own man."

"Well once Harry and I are done whipping him into shape..."

"Hello?" Came Harry's voice.

He walked into the Room of Requirement with Neville in tow.

"We ran into each other on the way here," Neville said.

"Sounds painful," Luna said dreamily.

Harry just snorted and sat next to me. The look on his face told me something had gone well.

"So have you looked at that egg yet?" Neville asked.

"Actually I was planning on doing that here." Harry replied, pulling it out of his bag.

"Did they say much about it?" I asked.

"Only that it held the key to figuring out the next challenge," I replied.

"I suppose it opens at the top?" Luna asked.

"Here goes nothing," he said, opening the egg.

What followed was a truly dreadful screeching sound that filled the room and threatened to deafen us all. Harry quickly closed the bloody thing and I sat back, cursing my sudden headache.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Neville asked.

"If that was their idea of a joke..." I said before being cut off by Luna.

"The lake." she said "Daddy told me about dialects that can't be heard in the air, only in the water. If this is one of them, then the next task will take you to the lake."

"If it is then you'll want to try hearing it with it and your head under water." I said

I transfigured a nearby chair into a sizeable basin and summoned water to fill it. Harry went over and held his head under the water with the egg, opening it and listening. After a moment, he pulled his head out, seemingly in shock and looked in my direction. The fear was clearly written on his face.

"No," he said simply "No, I won't allow it."

"What is it?" I asked, rising to comfort him

"I won't let you be dragged into this mess, I won't," Harry was at this point pacing back and forth in thought.

"Tell me what's wrong," I said.

He was still just pacing, obviously trying to think of any way that he could get out of whatever he was scared of. Taking the egg from where he set it down, I put my own head under the water and opened the egg.

"_Come seek us where our voices sound, We cannot sing above the ground, And while you're searching ponder this; We've taken what you'll sorely miss, An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took, But past an hour, the prospect's black, Too late, it's gone, it won't come back," _Came the disembodied voices of what I could only assume were Merpeople of some kind.

Flattered that his only thought of what they could take that he'd care about was me, I cast a drying charm on his hair and then my own. Walking over, I placed a comforting hand on his arm.

"There's no guarantee that it means a person, and even if it does, I trust you to save me." I said

"I am so sick of this!" he exclaimed "Year after year to be used as somebody's trained monkey. Forced to watch people I care about be placed in danger because of me and have to save them because Merlin forbid anyone with more experience ever do anything!"

"What's going on?" Neville asked

"The task clearly will involve something Harry cares about being taken by the Merpeople and he fears that they mean to take a person, in this case Ginny." Luna deduced

"Harry," I said placing my arms around his shoulders and drawing his head to look at me "I trust you with my life, and I know that no matter what you will always come for me."

Despite himself, he smiled, and I kissed him, enjoying the fact that I could make him relax so easily. After a moment he settled and spoke.

"Luna's right," he said "The next task will be rescuing something from the lake. The line 'Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.' makes me think that they mean a person."

"and you fear they mean the person you care about most," Luna said.

"Yes," He said looking at me

My heart soared at that comment and I resisted the urge to snog the hell out of him then and there.

"Harry, we just need to figure out how to get through this." I said

"Gillyweed," Neville piped up "It's a plant that gives you gills and webbed feet temporarily. It would help you make it through the lake."

"I can't swim though." Harry said cursing under his breath

"Really?" I asked surprised

"The Dursleys hated swimming." he said "Even if they didn't they'd have sooner drowned me than taught me anything."

I scowled at the thought of those bastards and continued "I can teach you. We have a few months before the task."

If Luna or Neville wanted to comment on what Harry said about his relatives, neither had the nerve.

"You could probably get this room to create a pool too." Neville said "Spare you swimming in the lake during the winter."

"It's a good point." I said

"What about human transfiguration?" Luna asked "It's pretty obvious that you're both advanced far beyond the rest of us. You could pull it off."

"That's true," Harry said "I could become a dolphin or something."

"As cute as that would be, full human transfigurations run the risk of regressing one's mental faculties to those of the creature, animagi not withstanding." I said "You could do it partially, but that would be little more beneficial than the Gillyweed for all the added effort."

"What about a magical animal?" Luna asked

"Of course," Harry said snapping his fingers "Luna you're a genius. I could just transfigure my lower half into that of a Merman."

"If you then cast some glamour charms on the rest of you, you could potentially pass for one of them." I added

"I don't speak their language of course." he said "But if I just avoided speaking to any of them, I could create an illusionary copy of you, disillusion you and drag you back to the surface."

"Or," I said, slightly annoyed at the idea of being dragged away "better plan. You could cast a bubble-head charm on me, cast the reviving charm, and we could both swim to the surface."

"You don't like being a damsel do you?" he asked with a grin.

"Been there done that," I said sharing his expression.

"I'll still want the Gillyweed as my plan B." he said turning to Neville "Do you know where to get it?"

"It's plentiful and easy to acquire." Neville said "There's no need to buy it."

"If you can get a few doses early, once I've learned to swim, it could be advantageous to map out the lake and figure out where they're most likely to take the hostages." he said

"Will do," Neville replied.

With that figured out, we got to practising magic until we had to get to classes.

Harry's POV

"I can't believe you actually beat me." Ginny grumbled as I helped her up

"Believe me, I'm surprised as well." I replied "Though Professor Flitwick was saying that he was quite impressed with the progress I've been making."

"I figured it would take you longer to surpass me," she said impressed "Though don't think for a moment that I'm not going to work to improve."

"Don't worry, you'll catch up to me someday." I said grinning, wiggling my eyebrows, and running away.

""You're going to regret that." Ginny said running after me.

I ran back through the chamber, eventually letting her catch me, and whirled her around until she was flat against the chamber wall. I took her mouth with mine and held her against the wall as I snogged her. I groaned as I took in her scent, from the sweet strawberry smell of her hair, to the wonderful smell that was just her. The feel of her lips against mine or her body pressed against me was amazing. With reluctance but a pressing need to breathe, I pulled away. Her face was flushed, her eyes wide and dilated, and her lips bore the look of a girl who'd just been snogged.

"What was that for?" she asked, her voice breathy,

"For being there for me through so much already." I said "I know we've only been a couple for a short time but..."

"It feels like longer," she finished.

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, let's get onto your first dancing lesson," she said "We don't have much else to do right now right?"

"No, I'm not meeting Moony until later," I replied.

"Then come," she said, dragging me to the centre of the chamber "Dobby, could you put the music on?"

The elf set the old record player we had acquired and an old ballad started playing.

"Now put your hand on my waist," she whispered

I did so happily and followed her lead, moving to the music. Eventually, I inevitably misstep and hurt her foot.

"Ow" she said before giggling "I guess we'll have to get through that a few times huh?

It went well enough, and I found that between duelling and Quidditch practice, that my body had gained the ability to adapt to new movements well enough. I still stepped on that foot a couple more times, but Ginny was patient and after a while I got used to the dance. Dancing with her was heavenly, between the close contact and the moving in unison, it felt as if we weren't just the only people in the room, but on the planet. Eventually despite the fun, we had to stop and Ginny went to sit down.

"You're more graceful than you thought," she laughed "You should still have a license for those hulking feet though."

I laughed and knelt dramatically "So sorry my love, I shall of course do all I can to make it up to you."

She stopped laughing, and looked at me, seemingly perplexed "What did you call me?"

"'My love,' sorry I was just being a fool" I said.

"No, I like it," she said "My love."

"I guess it is a nice pet name." I said, taking the foot I had stepped on in my hands.

Removing her shoe and sock, I got to work massaging the area I had stepped on

"Oh Harry," she moaned lightly "Where on Earth did you learn that?"

"I bought a few muggle books on anatomy over the summer," I said "Thought it good to learn."

"No argument here," she replied, sitting back in her seat.

I massaged the foot happily, enjoying the look of bliss on her face as she relaxed and enjoyed my work. Eventually, she used magic to remove the shoe and sock on her other foot and rubbed it down my arm in a not so subtle hint.

"I don't remember stepping on this one." I said, getting to work on it regardless

"Consider it reward for the dancing lesson," she joked, winking at me.

Deciding to be bold I replied "And what body part should I massage as reward for the swimming lesson?"

With glee I watched her mouth open and no reply come out. She then just swallowed visibly and blushed her Weasley red.

"I'll get back to you." she murmured and I laughed at having gotten her to blush again.

When I finished, I pulled her forward by the waist and kissed her again, taking in that euphoric sensation anew.

"Thank you for all this," I said.

"You are my date," she laughed "This isn't exactly a selfless act on my part."

"Not the lesson, though yeah, thank you," I said "Just for putting up with me I guess. My life does often suck after all.

"You're worth it," she whispered, kissing me back.

"Hey, I just thought, you don't have a gown for this do you?" I asked

"Oh no you don't." She said firmly "You are not spending a fortune on some insanely beautiful dress for me."

"Words no one in history has uttered before." I laughed before kissing her lightly on her forehead "I want to treat you my love."

"Harry," she whined slightly.

"We can make a date of it." I said "I can take you to lunch somewhere nice in Diagon Alley, and you can pick out something at Madame Malkins, or wherever you think would be best, its not exactly my expertise."

"Mine either," she grumbled "Look, if I let you do this, and I'm not saying yes, there is no way I'm letting you see it before the Yule Ball."

"I can send Dobby in my place." I said

"Fine," she said reluctantly "but nothing ridiculously expensive, and I want to go with you to see Professor Lupin later."

"Deal," I said.

"You spoil me Potter," she whispered, trying to sound more irritated than she actually was.

"And you and I both love every minute of it," I replied with a grin.

Ginny's POV

We arrived at the Leaky Cauldron that evening just after dinner. We had donned some glamour charms so that the press, or worse, my parents if they happened to be here, wouldn't recognize us. Seeing Professor Lupin already seated, we made our way over.

"Can I help you?" he asked wearily as we approached.

"Care to help a stag and his doe out?" Harry asked.

Lupin raised his eyebrow and whispered "I solemnly swear..."

"We are up to no good I swear." Harry said grinning.

"Sit down," Lupin laughed "You as well Ms?"

"Weasley," I replied.

"Ah okay, Ginny right?" he asked.

"You remember," I said smiling.

"You were the best in your class," he said smiling.

We took our seats just as Tom came over with a mug.

"Pint of Mulled Mead." he said, placing it in front of Lupin

"Same for me," Harry said.

"and me," I added.

"Two more coming up," Tom said, showing that our Glamour charms were working.

"You know a responsible adult would try to dissuade you from drinking," Lupin sighed.

"But because you're happy to see me you'll let it go this once?" Harry asked.

"You're cut off at this one." Lupin said holding out a single finger.

Harry smiled and sat back "How have you been?"

"Alright I suppose," Lupin replied "I have to ask though, your letter seemed urgent, what's happened?"

"Gods, where do I start?" Harry said before turning to me "Actually I can start here, the reason I brought Ginny here is that she and I are dating."

Lupin let out a light laugh "Potters and their redheads. I'm happy for you both."

"Thank you Professor," I said

"Ginny, I'm not your professor anymore, please, call me Remus or Moony" Lupin said

"Could you cast the Muffliato Charm" Harry cast.

"Haven't heard of that spell in quite a while." Lupin commented, as he did so.

"I've been going through my mum's old journals," Harry said "anyway, the reason that I asked to meet requires a long explanation."

"Two mulled meads," Tom said setting them down.

I thanked him, taking the pint and watched as Harry explained most of what had happened since he first called on Dobby in the summer. I watched Lupin's expression darken even as Harry skipped over the Dursley's role as much as possible.

"Have you told Padfoot about any of this?" he asked.

"I've skipped over a lot of it thus far because..." Harry started before Lupin cut him off.

"Because even thought I'm the werewolf, I have greater impulse control?" he asked.

"I wouldn't put it like that but yeah," Harry said.

"Harry, I'm so sorry about all of this." he said remorsefully "You have no idea how much I wish I had fought Dumbledore harder when he sent you there."

"Moony there's little you could have done." I said "The Ministry would have blocked you at every turn."

"I just wish I had gotten there before Sirius and smuggled you away," he said,

"I don't blame you Moony," Harry said "There really is little that could have been done. All I can ask now is that you leave them to me."

"What do you have planned?" he asked.

"Nothing worth talking about just yet." Harry replied "Now the reason that I asked to meet you is that I kinda took over the Daily Prophet."

"You what?!" Moony exclaimed, his reaction similar to Sirius'.

"Well, I guess you read that moronic article that was written about Harry, Hermione, and I?" I asked.

"No, I can't stand the Prophet," he replied "What did they write?"

"That I was having tawdry affairs with them both." Harry answered.

"What?" Moony asked in shock, "Merlin's balls your fourteen."

"It was idiotic, but it also hurt Ginny and Hermione so I used the shares that the Potter estate already owned to help me acquire a controlling interest." Harry said

"He then had Rita Skeeter arrested for being an unregistered Animagus." I said.

"No irony there," Lupin said "So you now own the most read publication in the country."

"Yes," Harry said "and I want you to be my person representative among its editors."

"You want what now?" he asked in shock.

"I want you to work for me," Harry said, setting his mug down "I can't replace all of their editors right now and I don't trust a single one of them. My hope for the position would be that the editor in chief would answer to you. You would then learn all that you could about his job until such time as you can replace him and I can fire the arrogant SOB."

"You want me to run the Daily Prophet?" Remus asked "Are you insane? There is no way that they would ever let someone like me hold a position like that."

"Until you were named editor in Chief, your position would be private and the people there are contractually obligated to disclose nothing about the inner workings of the paper." I explained

"I may not even name you that if conditions aren't in favour of it." Harry continued "At the end of the day, I need someone that I trust to run the day to day operations of the paper. There is a war coming and when Snakeface comes back, I'm going to need a propaganda machine on my side to work against him."

"You really think his return is close?" Lupin asked.

"I do," Harry said "Tell me you'll do this, tell me that I have this base covered so I can focus on other areas of the war plan."

"You are so young," Lupin said "You shouldn't have to deal with all of this."

"You shouldn't have lost your best friends, and I should have grown up with two loving parents and possible siblings," Harry said "We're in this too deep to get out, I either win this coming conflict or I die."

Lupin buried his head in his hands and sighed, looking significantly older than he truly was.

"Alright, I'll do it," Lupin said "But you promise me that you will bring anything big like this to my attention before you do it in future. You may be mature for your ages but you are still kids. Having an adult's perspective might well save your lives, and James and Lily would kill me if I didn't do that much."

"Deal," Harry replied shaking his hand. "Welcome aboard."

"I'll still need some time to set things up for this." Lupin said

"We've set something up to assist that," I said pulling out a folder from Harry's bag and handing it to him

"Those are the details on your job expectations and salary," I said "There is a stipend included for business attire, and whatever else you may need, and the dossier contains all the information there is on the inner workings of the Prophet."

He looked over the file and if he was surprised by anything he didn't mention it.

"Alright, I'll review this in greater detail tonight and be ready for work day after tomorrow." he said

"Perfect," Harry said "Oh, one other thing, what do you know of Amelia Bones?"

"A fair bit why?" Lupin asked.

"I had the goblins investigate many of the top people in the Ministry, and of them, the one most likely to be good in war times seemed to be her," Harry started.

"So have you spoken to her thus far?" Remus asked.

"I went to see her and offered to help her promote the auror corp, while also potentially boosting her own career." Harry said "While I was there, I brought up that Sirius had never had a trial..."

"WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU...?" Remus yelled.

"I didn't say that I knew him or even met him," Harry cut him off "I said that a couple students claimed to have witnessed his arrest and that he had said that. I then claimed that while I didn't believe them, I looked into the claims and couldn't find any documentation that suggested that a trial had happened.

"Oh," Lupin said

"What was weird was that when I mentioned him, she got a really odd look on her face, like she'd seen a ghost," Harry continued "Then she looked like she wanted to make someone a ghost and said she'd double check. Did she have some connection to my parents?"

"Not really, but she was connected to Sirius." he said "She was a couple years older than us, but that didn't stop him. He hounded her like a dog with a bone for years and, oh Merlin, I didn't mean it like that."

Harry and I snickered.

"Anyway, she had no interest in him while they were at school, she was older after all but a few months before, what happened with your parents, they met up and started dating," he continued "She was injured in the attack that killed your classmate Susan's parents and was kept in a magically induced coma for months."

"She wasn't awake when his parents died was she?" I asked.

"No, she wasn't," he said "She woke up in, December I think. She sought me out, sometime after but, you were beyond my reach and my closest friends were either dead or in jail for killing the others, at least as I thought then. I can't imagine what it was like for her though, to wake up to discover that your sister is dead, your brother in law is dead, and your boyfriend is in jail for working the guy that did all that, and killing his closest friends."

"What did you tell her?" Harry asked.

"I don't really remember," he said "I only remember when she woke up because I read about it a couple years back in an article written about the DMLE. I was living bottle to bottle there for a while."

"I'm sorry to bring it all back up," Harry said.

"If I had dealt with it better then, your life could have been better, and I know you don't blame me but still," he said "If you need to know anything, don't hesitate to ask Padfoot or I if it might help you."

"Alright," Harry said "Thank you Remus."

We sat there quietly, finishing our mead, before we turned conversation to something lighter and enjoyed catching up with the man we both agreed had been our greatest defense teacher.

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><p><strong>AN** Next chapter will contain the Yule Ball. Reviews are welcome.


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